Furnace installation and replacement

Furnace installation means putting in a new heating system. Furnace replacement means taking out a worn or unsafe one and putting a new one in its place. In a ducted house that is usually a gas furnace in the attic, a hall closet or the garage. In an older house without ducts it is often a wall furnace.

We replace furnaces and wall heaters in houses, condos and townhomes across Los Angeles, from Long Beach and Torrance to Beverly Hills, Glendale, North Hollywood, Tarzana, Santa Clarita and Westlake Village. If you are still working out what the house needs, see all our heating and cooling services. If the furnace might still be worth fixing, start with furnace and heater repair.

We size the new furnace to the house, not to the label on the old one. Older furnaces were often oversized, and a house with new windows or attic insulation needs less heat than it did. A furnace that is too big heats in short bursts, wears faster and leaves some rooms cold.

Efficiency is shown as AFUE, the share of the gas that turns into heat in the house. A higher AFUE burns less gas for the same warmth. In a mild climate the extra cost of the most efficient models takes longer to pay back, and we talk through where that line sits for your house.

Where the furnace sits changes the job:

• Attic. Common in Los Angeles. Access, the platform, the flue and the condensate drain all need planning.
• Hall closet. Tight space, so the new unit has to fit the opening and still get the combustion air it needs.
• Garage. Easier access, with rules on height and protection from cars.
• Crawlspace. Low headroom and a longer install, but it keeps the unit out of the living space.

Replacing a furnace or an air handler needs a mechanical permit from your city's building department. In the City of Los Angeles, a like-for-like changeout usually goes through an online express permit. We pull the permit as part of the job.

California's energy code, Title 24, then usually calls for a test by an independent HERS rater. The rater measures how much air the ducts leak. Existing or altered ducts pass at 15 percent leakage or better. An entirely new duct system has to reach 5 percent or better. The result is registered with the California Energy Commission and becomes part of the permit record.

This is where older Los Angeles houses need care. An attic or closet furnace may feed ducts that are decades old, with loose joints, torn wrap or crushed runs. Those ducts can fail the 15 percent test even when the new furnace is perfect. We look at the ducts before we price the job, so you know up front whether they need sealing, repair or replacement. Duct repair and sealing covers that work.

We price your house after we have seen it. The main factors:

• The type of heater you choose, and its size and efficiency.
• Where it sits, and how easy that spot is to reach.
• Whether the ducts pass the test as they are, or need work first.
• Venting, gas line and electrical changes.
• The permit and the HERS test.
• Whether the air conditioner is replaced at the same time.

Our guide to furnace replacement cost walks through each one. If you are torn between a new furnace and AC or a single heat pump, our guide to heat pump vs AC compares the two for a Los Angeles house. If the air conditioner is also near the end, AC installation and replacement explains that side of the job.

We know gas furnaces, wall heaters and heat pumps, and we know what an older Los Angeles house does to an install. We are licensed and insured. We explain the choices in plain words and price the whole job, ducts and permit included, before any work starts.

To get started, call us or send us the details. It helps to have the age of the current furnace, a photo of its label, where it sits and whether the house has central air. We answer every day, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.