Furnace Installation in Aberdeen, MD
A new furnace here will run from October through April every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Harford County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Aberdeen asks a furnace to run seven months of the year
From October through April your furnace is doing the work, and on a lot of those nights it is holding the house against a low near 26°F. That is seven months of cycling on and off, night after night.
Power does not always stay on through a winter storm. Harford County has seen 24 winter storms and 329 damaging wind events over the last ten years, and across Maryland about 11% of households lost power for a full day or more in 2024. A new furnace installed here has to be able to start back up on its own once power returns. If it runs on gas, federal rules now set the floor at 80.0 percent AFUE, so any new unit installed will meet at least that.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 26°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 80% AFUE
- the federal minimum any new unit must meet
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Maryland requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The state tested the contractor before handing out that license, and the license stays tied to them, not to any one job. It tells you the person or company doing the work had to prove they knew the trade to the Board's standard, and there's a record of them on file with the state.
For a furnace install specifically, that license is what stands behind the work itself, but the job doesn't end there. In most cities and counties here, swapping in a new furnace needs a permit from the local building office, and that means someone comes out to inspect the work once it's done. The permit and inspection are separate from the license. One says the contractor is qualified. The other says this particular installation, the gas connection, the venting, was checked before anyone signed off on it.
Sources: Maryland General Assembly · Maryland Department of Labor
- What size furnace does my house need?
- A contractor works this out with a load calculation, not a chart based on square footage alone. That calculation looks at how much heat your house loses through its walls, windows, attic and air leaks, then sizes the furnace to match. A furnace that is too big cycles on and off too fast and never runs long enough to heat evenly. One that is too small runs constantly and still cannot keep up on the coldest nights, and with winter lows here averaging 26°F, that gap shows up fast. Ask the contractor for the load calculation, not just a number.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- If your furnace is having trouble keeping the house warm, needs repairs more than once a season, or is old enough that parts are getting hard to find, it is time to start looking at replacement. Homes here need heat from October through April, seven months of the year, so a furnace that is starting to fail has little downtime to recover in. Rising gas or electric bills for the same amount of heat is another sign, since it usually means the furnace is working harder to do the same job. A contractor can look at the specific unit and tell you whether a repair still makes sense or whether replacement is the better move.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on what you are comparing it to and how long you plan to stay in the house, and a contractor can walk you through the actual numbers for your situation. Every non-weatherized gas furnace made since November 2015 has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE by law, so even a standard furnace today is not far behind a high-efficiency one. A high-efficiency furnace goes beyond that minimum and uses less fuel to produce the same heat, which matters more here since homes need heat from October through April, seven months of the year. Ask a contractor to compare the fuel use of both options for your specific house before deciding.