Furnace Installation in Bowie, MD
A new furnace here will run from October through April every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Prince George's County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Bowie asks a lot of a furnace
Winter nights here average 28°F, and homes need heat from October through April, seven months of the year. More than half the homes in the area heat with gas, so when a furnace goes out, there's no backup running quietly in the background.
Power doesn't always hold up either. Across Maryland, 11% of households lost power for at least 24 hours in 2024, and this area has logged 10 winter storms and 222 damaging wind events over the past ten years. A new furnace has to work through all of that. If it's a non-weatherized gas furnace built after November 2015, federal rules require it to reach at least 80 percent AFUE.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 28°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 53%
- 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 $100 a year to run in Prince George's County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Prince George's County home, from EIA household energy data, Maryland fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Maryland requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
Maryland licenses HVAC contractors through the Maryland Board of Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Contractors. The license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job, so the same license covers a repair call and a full installation like this one.
For a furnace installation in Prince George's County, that license is what stands behind the work. Most cities and counties also require a permit from the local building office for a job like this, with an inspection once the work is done, and that is separate from the state license. Just over half the homes in Prince George's County heat with gas, and an inspection on a furnace installation is what checks the gas connection and venting on the finished job.
Sources: Maryland General Assembly · Maryland Department of Labor
- What size furnace does my house need?
- The right size depends on your square footage, your insulation, your windows, and your home's layout, so no number works for every house. A contractor sizes it with a load calculation that looks at all of that together, not just the square footage. Going by square footage alone can leave you with a furnace that's too big, which cycles on and off more than it should, or one that's too small to keep up when it's 28°F outside. Have a contractor do the calculation for your specific house before you pick a unit.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- An aging furnace that needs repairs more than once a season is usually telling you it's done. Watch for uneven heat between rooms, a furnace that runs longer than it used to, or a rise in your gas bill without an obvious reason. Since homes here need heat from October through April, a furnace that's struggling in the fall is a sign it won't make it through a full winter. Have a contractor look at it before the cold sets in rather than after it fails on a 28°F night.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how long you plan to stay in the house and how much you run the furnace. With heat needed here for 7 months of the year, a more efficient furnace has more months to make up the difference in fuel use compared to a milder climate. Every non-weatherized gas furnace sold new today has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE, so even a standard model is more efficient than older furnaces still running in some homes. A contractor can walk through the options and their efficiency ratings for your specific house and tell you what fits your budget and how long you plan to stay.