Drag through fifteen years of a typical 2011 furnace and watch what keeping it alive actually cost.
Rated at install. A furnace does not hold this number for long.
No work orders yet. Drag the year forward.
A new system is a big number on day one. The old one charges you slowly, which is why it feels cheaper.
Most contractors make more on a replacement, so that is what gets recommended. Here is the rule we actually use.
When the running total of repairs plus wasted fuel passes what a replacement costs, repairing stops being the cheap option. Before that line, we repair. After it, we say so plainly and show you the arithmetic. That is the entire policy.
That one is not a judgment call. It is a combustion safety failure and the system gets condemned, whatever the age.
Parts are available, efficiency has barely moved, and the payback on a replacement is not there yet.
Not to scare you into buying. So you can decide whether you want to gamble on it through another January.
Even when we think replacing is smarter, you get the repair price in writing. It is your money and your call.
Equipment gets sized for the coldest hours Chicago actually delivers, not for an average. An undersized system is fine until the one week it is not.
Cold-climate units hold usable capacity well below zero. We pair one with a gas furnace so the cheaper source runs until it stops making sense.
Chicago two-flats and greystones often have radiators and no ductwork at all. Ducted retrofits ruin ceilings. We use ductless heads instead.
These are typical installed prices on a standard Chicago single-family home. Rebates and federal credits come off the top, and we file the paperwork.
A 96% AFUE two-stage gas furnace and a matched 15 SEER2 condenser. The honest baseline for most houses on this block.
Cold-climate heat pump plus a gas furnace as backup. Runs on the cheaper source hour by hour and cuts a typical gas bill by roughly half.
"They repaired a nine year old furnace that two other companies told me was finished. It ran four more winters."
"When it finally did need replacing they showed me every repair I had paid for since 2016. No pressure, just the total."
Those two facts get you a straight answer on the phone, usually before we have to come out at all.
(312) 555-0192No overtime rate on nights or weekends between November and March.