Takes about a minute. No obligation.
Gas heats 83.2% of the homes in Lake County, which is most of them. Electricity accounts for 14.7%, and LP gas covers another 1.3%. If your old furnace ran on gas, replacing it with another gas furnace is usually the straightforward move, since the gas line, the vent and the setup are already there. A contractor can confirm what your home has to work with before quoting anything else.
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Furnaces in Waukegan run about eight months a year, October through May.
A furnace running eight months a year needs the right size from the start, not whatever fits the budget.
Ask what size the quote is based on. A proper contractor measures the house room by room and runs a load calculation, not a guess based on the old unit. Ask about the stages, too. Some furnaces only run on full blast or off, others ease into a lower flame and only ramp up when it's cold enough to need it. Ask what the warranty covers, the parts or the labor too, and for how long. And ask who's actually doing the install, since a sloppy duct connection or a poorly sealed vent can undo a good furnace fast.
Any furnace installed here now has to hit 80 percent AFUE at minimum, and come 2028 that floor jumps to 95 percent. A federal tax credit is available for qualifying high-efficiency equipment. A contractor can walk you through what qualifies before you settle on a system.
Find a contractorCount the overnight lows too. December through February average 19°F here, and the furnace is what stands between that and a comfortable house. An undersized unit run this hard all winter will come up short exactly when you need it most, then wear out trying to catch up. Get the load calculation done and size it to the house, not to what the old furnace happened to be.
A bigger furnace costs more to buy, plain and simple. But the right size isn't the biggest one available, it's the one the load calculation says the house needs. Going a size up because it sounds safer just means paying more for a furnace that short cycles and wears out its parts faster.
If the vent, the gas line and the ductwork already match what the new furnace needs, the install is mostly a swap. If the new furnace needs a different vent type, or the ductwork has to be resized to handle the airflow, that's extra work beyond the unit itself. A contractor can tell you which situation you're in before quoting the job.
Estimates for a typical Lake County home, from EIA household energy data, Illinois fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Installation day starts with the old furnace coming out, along with the old vent pipe if it doesn't match what the new unit needs. The gas line gets connected, the vent gets run, and the ductwork ties into the plenum. Once it's wired up, the contractor fires it up and checks the flame, then tests the pressures and temperatures to make sure it's burning the way it should. Airflow gets checked at the registers, since a furnace can be sized right and still underperform if the ducts can't move enough air. Before anyone leaves, the system should run through a full cycle, heat up, hit the thermostat setting, and shut back down on its own.
