Furnace Installation in Warwick, RI
A new furnace here will run from October through May every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Kent County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of heating in Warwick
Furnaces in Warwick run from October through May. That's eight months out of twelve, with winter nights averaging 23°F from December through February. A new furnace here needs to hold up to a long season, not just a few cold snaps.
Any non-weatherized gas furnace built since November 2015 has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE by federal rule, so that's the floor, not a selling point. Power is also worth planning for. Across Rhode Island, 12% of households lost power for 24 hours or more in 2024, and the last ten years brought 50 winter storms and 86 damaging wind events to the area. A furnace that comes back on by itself once power returns matters on a night when the temperature has dropped to 23°F.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 23°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 50%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 80% AFUE
- the federal minimum any new unit must meet
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A high-efficiency gas furnace would save about $230 a year to run in Kent County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Kent County home, from EIA household energy data, Rhode Island fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Rhode Island requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
That license is issued through the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, and it belongs to the contractor, not to your furnace or your address. It is a record of who is allowed to do this work in the state. It does not cover the work itself.
That part comes from your local building office. In most cities and counties, a furnace installation needs a permit and an inspection when the job is done, and that inspection is what catches a bad gas connection or a vent run that was not done right. In Kent County, just over half of homes heat with gas, so that check matters here as much as anywhere. The license tells you who is allowed to do the job. The permit and inspection tell you it was done right.
Source: Rhode Island General Assembly
- What size furnace does my house need?
- A contractor has to work this out with a load calculation, not a chart based on square footage. That calculation looks at how much insulation your house has, how many windows, the ceiling height, and how much air leaks in and out. A furnace that is too big will short cycle, turning on and off more than it should, and one that is too small will run constantly and still leave rooms cold on a 23°F night. Get the load calculation done rather than matching the size of the old unit, since the old one may have been wrong too.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- If it is breaking down every winter, or the repairs are stacking up, that is your answer. Watch for a furnace that cycles on and off too often, one that cannot keep the house warm through a stretch of 23°F nights, or a burner flame that looks yellow instead of blue. Rooms that used to heat evenly and now do not are also a sign the heat exchanger or blower is wearing out. Since homes here need heat from October through May, eight months of the year, a furnace on its way out gives you a lot of chances to notice before it fails on the coldest night.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how many months a year your furnace runs and what you are replacing. Any furnace made after November 2015 already has to hit at least 80 percent AFUE, so a higher-efficiency model is a step up from that floor, not from nothing. With heat needed here from October through May, a furnace that runs eight months of the year has more chances to make that efficiency difference count than one that only runs a few weeks. A contractor can price the options against each other for your house and let you weigh the difference yourself.