Electricity here runs $46.51 per million Btu
Illinois electricity cost $46.51 per million Btu in 2024, state data shows. Most furnaces in Marion run on electric heat, so that rate is what drives the bill every time the furnace cycles on.
Furnace Installation in Marion, IL
Tell us about the job
Takes about a minute. No obligation.
Step 1 of 3: Equipment
The furnace you pick sets the bill for years
A furnace installed this year keeps running on Marion winters for a long time after. At this rate per Btu, how efficiently the new furnace converts power into heat decides what each winter costs, not just the first one.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 27°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 80% AFUE
- the federal minimum any new unit must meet
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NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Furnaces in Marion start running in October.
A furnace installed in September is already broken in before the first cold night asks anything of it.
Most homes around Marion already heat with electricity, so a new furnace is likely replacing one
Marion falls in climate zone 4A, a mixed zone that asks real work of both the furnace and the AC. Any gas furnace sold here has to meet the federal minimum for units built after November 19, 2015, which is 80 percent efficiency: at least 80 cents of every dollar of gas turns into heat in the house. That floor rises to 95 percent for furnaces built from December 18, 2028 on, so the market is already moving toward units that waste less gas than the current minimum allows. A furnace bought today only has to clear the 80 percent bar. One that clears 95 anyway costs less to run every winter it's installed, not just the winter it goes in.
Pick the furnace that pays you back every winter
Electricity here runs $46.51 per million Btu. The furnace going in now is what decides how far that rate stretches, this winter and every one after it.
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What's under the sticker price
What a furnace costs to put in comes down to more than the box on the showroom floor. A bigger unit costs more, but bigger isn't automatically better. A furnace sized too large for the space turns on, blasts heat, and shuts off again before it ever settles into a steady run. That short cycling wears the igniter and the blower motor faster and leaves rooms feeling uneven anyway. A furnace sized right for the home runs longer, gentler cycles, and that sizing work, not just the equipment, is a real part of what an installer is pricing. The ductwork already in place matters too. If it's undersized or leaky, a new furnace has to fight it, and whoever installs the furnace may need to seal or adjust duct runs before the new unit can perform the way it's rated to. Venting is its own cost driver. A higher-efficiency furnace condenses moisture out of the exhaust and needs venting that can handle that moisture, which isn't always the same pipe the old furnace used. Swapping a furnace for one of similar efficiency is a more straightforward job than moving up to a condensing furnace that needs new venting run to the outside. The thermostat and controls add up too, especially if the new furnace is a variable-speed or multi-stage unit that needs wiring the old single-stage thermostat never had to carry.
The old furnace doesn't get reused
A furnace that comes out gets scrapped, not resold or passed on. Once the heat exchanger has run for years, there's no way to certify it safe for another house, so it goes to metal recycling and nothing else.
Taking it out is its own job
Disconnecting the old furnace means shutting off gas or power, pulling the venting, and clearing the old unit out of the mechanical space before the new one goes in. Whoever installs the furnace has to size up what the old ductwork and venting can handle before the new equipment ever gets set in place.
Comparing furnaces on price alone misses what actually changes year to year. Ask what stage of heat each one runs: single-stage fires at full blast every time, two-stage can hold a lower flame for milder days, and that difference shows up in both comfort and how hard the burner works over a season. Ask what kind of blower motor is inside. A variable-speed motor ramps up gradually and holds a steady airflow, where a single-speed motor jumps straight to full speed and shuts off hard. Ask about the warranty on the heat exchanger specifically, not just the unit as a whole, since that part is the one that's expensive to replace and dangerous to ignore if it cracks. Ask how each model is vented, because a condensing furnace needs venting rated for the moisture in its exhaust, and not every quote accounts for that. And ask what the AFUE rating actually is, not just whether it's high efficiency, since that one number tells you how much of every dollar of fuel becomes heat in the house and how much goes out the flue.
Most of installation day goes to things the homeowner never sees. The installer shuts off gas and power, disconnects the old venting, and checks what the ductwork and vent openings can handle before the new furnace ever comes off the dolly. Setting the unit in place and connecting gas, power, and venting is its own careful stretch of work, and venting especially can't be rushed if the new furnace condenses moisture out of its exhaust. Once everything's connected, the installer fires it up and runs it through a full cycle, checking the flame, the airflow at the vents, and the temperature rise against what the manufacturer specifies. That test run is what tells the installer the furnace is set up right, not just switched on.
