Furnace Installation in Fairbanks, AK
A new furnace here will run from August through June every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Fairbanks North Star Borough will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eleven months of heat, and nights near -10
Fairbanks homes need heat from August through June. That is eleven months a year, with only a short stretch where the furnace can rest. Winter nights average -10°F from December through February, so when it does run, it runs hard, cycling on through the night to hold the house at temperature.
Most homes here still heat with fuel oil, and a new furnace has to be sized and installed for that kind of cold, not for a mild winter somewhere else. Any new gas furnace also has to meet the federal minimum of 80 percent AFUE, set for units built after November 2015. With storms knocking out power here and a fifth of Alaska households losing power for a day or more in 2024, a furnace that starts back up reliably once the power returns matters as much as one that runs well while it's on.
- 11 months
- August through June, your furnace is on duty
- -10°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 80% AFUE
- the federal minimum any new unit must meet
NOAA 1991–2020 monthly normals
Alaska requires contractors to register with the state.
Registration puts the business on file with the state. Nobody tested the contractor's work and no state agency is checking it before or after the job. It tells you the business exists on paper, not that anyone graded its furnace installs.
With no license behind the work, what protects you here is the permit. A furnace replacement in most cities and counties needs a permit from the local building office and an inspection once the work is done. That inspection is a check the state registration does not provide.
Source: Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development
- What size furnace does my house need?
- A contractor sizes it by running a heat loss calculation on your house, not by matching the furnace you already have. That means looking at your square footage, insulation, window count and type, and ceiling height. With winter lows averaging -10°F here, undersizing leaves you cold on the worst nights, and oversizing makes the furnace cycle on and off more than it should. Since your house needs heat nearly 11 months a year, getting this number right matters more here than almost anywhere else.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Watch how the furnace is behaving, not just its age. Rooms that won't heat evenly, a furnace that runs almost constantly, or a fuel bill that jumps with no other explanation all point to a furnace that's struggling. About 70.7% of households here heat with fuel oil, and an older oil furnace tends to lose efficiency as it ages, so those signs are worth taking seriously. If a repair would cost close to what a new furnace costs, most homeowners choose to replace it instead.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- For a house here, yes, because the furnace runs nearly year-round. Every gas furnace made since November 2015 has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE, but high-efficiency models go well above that, so they burn less fuel for the same heat. With 11 months of heating a year and winter lows averaging -10°F, that difference adds up over a season more than it would somewhere milder. A contractor can walk you through which models make sense for your house.