Deciding when to replace your furnace can be a tough call for many homeowners. Sometimes, your unit simply dies one day and makes the decision for you. But for many people, there is no clear end to your unit’s life, and it can be difficult to think of all the pros and cons of replacing it. If you’re questioning whether or not it’s worth it to get a new furnace, we’ve compiled a list of 5 big things for you to consider to help you make that decision.
Age of Your Furnace
Furnaces have an average lifespan of about 15 to 30 years with proper maintenance. When your furnace is within that range, you may be thinking about a replacement. But age alone shouldn’t sway you, and the range of furnace lifespans is quite a big timeframe. While many furnaces die within the expected range, there are always outliers that will fail sooner than expected or furnaces that well exceed expectations and live much longer. Looking at the age of your furnace along with the effectiveness and the costs associated with it will give you a more clear answer.
You may also consider the age of your furnace with your future plans. If you’re planning on moving within a couple of years, you may want to consider replacing your furnace to make your home more attractive to potential buyers.
Effectiveness of Your Furnace
If your home heating is inconsistent, you may be thinking of getting a new furnace. When your furnace is struggling to keep up with the demand of your home and causing some rooms to be warm while others are cold, it could be a sign that the unit is ready to replaced. However, this alone is not a clear indicator. In many cases, a furnace that is struggling to warm up your home is simply in need of a new filter or some cleaning of your ducts. In other cases, the unit has failing parts and repair would be too unreliable to be worth it.
Because a furnace’s job is rather simple, the symptoms of several issues may appear the same way. Scheduling a visit from an experienced technician can help you determine whether or not the performance of your furnace makes it worthy of a replacement or a repair. A quality tech will take the age of your furnace and the cost to repair into consideration when recommending a replacement.
Declining Energy Efficiency
A dying furnace is less efficient than a fully-functioning furnace in terms of energy usage. If it’s struggling to function normally and its efficiency is declining, it’s likely also using more energy than it used to. Older models also means older technology, and furnaces are now made to be much more energy efficient than they used to be. If you’re thinking about a replacement, compare your energy bills over time. If your furnace is using more energy over time and increasing the amount you pay in bills, you might be more interested in replacing your furnace. Newer furnaces are much more energy-efficient than furnaces made 15+ years ago, and the monthly savings are notable. If this is the only issue with your furnace, however, the cost to replace it may outweigh the potential savings.
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Frequency of Repairs
It’s normal for a furnace to need repairs here and there throughout its lifespan, but if you find yourself calling a technician for a repair more and more frequently, you might be inclined to replace your furnace. Having problems with your furnace more often than you should can very often be a byproduct of a different issue. Notably, it can be a sign that your furnace is getting old and is reaching the end of its life. As different mechanisms inside the furnace age out and start to fail, it needs more repairs and upgrades to keep the unit functioning. But at a certain point, you may consider it worth it to replace the unit altogether rather than rebuild it piece-by-piece. In this case, it’s especially helpful to get an opinion from a trusted HVAC technician to find out if the repairs your unit needs are worth the hassle.
Cost of Repairs
Along with repairs becoming more frequent, the cost of frequent repairs is something to consider on its own. Having multiple repairs over a year might be more frequent than you’d like, but the cost of the repair is often a reflection of how serious the issues are, and in turn how seriously you should be thinking about replacing the furnace altogether. If the repairs are fairly inexpensive, it’s likely worth it to see how things go for a little longer, as several small repairs is nowhere near as expensive as a full replacement. If you’re having to pay for several rather expensive repairs, you may want to think about the likelihood of having to do similarly priced repairs in the near future. It could even be one repair alone that’s costing you several hundred dollars that will make you think about a replacement.
When you take these other criteria into account, you may very well have your solution. If a furnace is losing its efficiency, 20 years old, and now has a repair needed for one of its most expensive and important components, you will most likely find it to be more cost-effective to buy a new unit.
Conclusion
There are many criteria to consider when you’re deciding whether or not to replace your furnace. While each consideration alone might not give you a proper answer, taking everything at once can help you weigh the pros and cons. If it’s still difficult to make the call, have a trusted HVAC technician take a look at your unit and help you estimate the life left in your current unit and whether or not you should be replacing your furnace.
