Furnace Installation in Des Moines, IA
A new furnace here will run from October through May every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Polk County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Des Moines asks a lot of a furnace
Winter nights here average 16°F, and homes need heat from October through May. That is eight months of the year the burner is doing real work, most of it on the coldest nights of the year.
A new non-weatherized gas furnace has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE under federal rule. Iowa also sees its share of winter storms, 21 of them over the last ten years, plus 191 damaging wind events in that same stretch. In 2024, 15 percent of households in the state went at least a day without power. Most furnaces come back on by themselves once power is restored, which matters here since the cold does not wait for the lights to come back on.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 16°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 66%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 80% AFUE
- the federal minimum any new unit must meet
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A high-efficiency gas furnace would save about $90 a year to run in Polk County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Polk County home, from EIA household energy data, Iowa fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Iowa requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The Iowa Plumbing and Mechanical Systems Board tests and licenses HVAC contractors statewide, and that license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job. It means the state has checked this contractor's qualifications and keeps a record of them, whatever county they work in.
For a furnace install, that license is what stands behind the work, but Polk County still has its own say. Most cities and counties in Iowa require a permit for a furnace replacement and an inspection once it's done, and that inspection is what confirms the gas connections and venting were done right. With most homes in Polk County heating with gas, that inspection is the check on the part of the job that can turn dangerous if it's wrong.
Sources: Iowa Legislature · Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing
- What size furnace does my house need?
- A contractor works this out from a load calculation, not from your square footage alone. That calculation looks at your insulation, your windows, your ceiling height, and how much wall area faces outside. Two houses the same size can need different sized furnaces because one loses heat faster than the other. With winter lows here averaging 16°F, getting the size right matters. Too small and it runs constantly without keeping up. Too big and it short cycles, wearing out parts faster and leaving rooms uneven.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Age is the first thing to check. Furnaces get less reliable as they get older, and past a certain point repairs get more frequent and parts get harder to find. If yours is breaking down more than once a season, or a repair would cost a large share of what a new furnace costs, replacing it makes more sense than fixing it again. Rising gas bills with no other explanation can also mean the heat exchanger or burners are losing efficiency. Homes here need heat from October through May, eight months of the year, so a furnace that struggles has a lot of months left to prove it.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how many months your furnace runs and what you're replacing. Homes here need heat eight months a year, October through May, so a furnace that runs less efficiently is burning more gas for a long stretch. Furnaces made since November 2015 are required to reach at least 80 percent AFUE, so even a standard model sold today isn't the old inefficient kind. A high-efficiency furnace goes above that minimum, which means less gas burned for the same heat over those eight months. Whether the higher upfront cost pays off depends on your current furnace's efficiency and how long you plan to stay in the house. A contractor can walk through the numbers for your specific furnace and home.