Furnace Installation in Bend, OR
A new furnace here will run from September through June every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Deschutes County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Ten months of heat, down to 22 degrees
Bend needs a furnace ten months of the year, September through June. Winter nights average 22°F. Over the past ten years this area has logged 83 winter storms and 24 damaging wind events, and in 2024, 20% of Oregon households went at least 24 hours without power. A furnace needs electricity to run its igniter and blower, so when the power goes out, the furnace stops even if the gas line is fine.
Any non-weatherized gas furnace built new has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE under federal rule. That is the floor a new furnace has to meet, not a target. What size and efficiency make sense for your house is a separate question, one that depends on the house itself.
- 10 months
- September through June, your furnace is on duty
- 22°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 80% AFUE
- the federal minimum any new unit must meet
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Oregon requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
That license is issued to the contractor as a business, through the Construction Contractors Board, not to each job they do. Work under $1,000 falls outside that requirement, but a furnace installation runs well past that line, so the contractor doing this job needs to hold the license.
Most cities and counties also require a permit from the local building office for a furnace installation, with an inspection once the work is done. That inspection is separate from the state license. The license covers who is allowed to do the work. The permit and inspection are what check the work itself once it is in the house.
Source: Oregon Legislative Assembly
- What size furnace does my house need?
- The right size comes from a load calculation, not the square footage of your house alone. A contractor measures your insulation, your windows, your ceiling height, and how much wall faces north, then runs those numbers to find the actual heat loss on a cold night. A furnace that's too big will short cycle and wear out its parts faster. One that's too small will run constantly and still leave rooms cold when it's 22°F outside. Ask the contractor to show you the calculation, not just a number.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Watch for uneven heat, a furnace that runs longer than it used to, or repairs that keep coming back. If the heat exchanger has cracked or the furnace is old enough that parts are getting hard to find, replacing it makes more sense than fixing it again. Since homes here need heat from September through June, a furnace that struggles is a problem for most of the year, not just a few cold weeks. A contractor can tell you whether what you're seeing is normal wear or the start of the end.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- Every furnace sold new today has to hit at least 80 percent AFUE, so the question is really whether to go higher than that baseline. With winter lows averaging 22°F from December through February and heat needed most of the year here, a furnace that turns more of its fuel into heat is working hard for a long stretch every year. A high-efficiency model costs more upfront and often needs different venting, so get a contractor to run the comparison against a standard model for your specific house before you decide.