Furnace Installation & Replacement in Golden

The median Golden home dates to about 1986. East Street mixes farmhouses with early postwar subdivision homes, and hillside areas like Mesa Meadows have newer single-family houses. Furnaces from first replacements in the 2000s are the ones most often due now. These homes usually have room for a condensing furnace and an easy sidewall vent route. Split-levels on sloped lots are common, and their lower levels often run cool because supply runs are long; the Manual J and a duct check during the estimate tell us whether to fix that with the new furnace's blower settings, a return, or duct changes.

Nearly 8% of the city's housing is mobile or manufactured homes. Those homes use furnaces built and listed specifically for manufactured housing, usually downflow and sealed-combustion, and a standard residential furnace is not a substitute. We match the replacement to the home's listing and duct connection, and we confirm the floor opening, the vent through the roof and the combustion air supply fit the new unit before ordering. Colorado's 2026 propane exemption under SB26-002 covers propane and mobile-home water heaters, not furnaces, so a new manufactured-home gas furnace still has to meet the NOx limit.

At 5,784 feet, the derate is about 23%, so a 100,000 Btu/h input furnace runs near 77,000 Btu/h. We size from a Manual J and set gas pressure to the manufacturer's high-altitude table. Strong downslope gusts can push against a badly placed sidewall termination and trip a condensing furnace's pressure switch, so we keep PVC terminations out of inside corners where wind eddies and follow the manufacturer's guidance for windy sites.

Every new gas furnace must meet 14 ng/J NOx or current ENERGY STAR certification (97% AFUE since July 31, 2026). See our NOx guide.

The City of Golden Building Division issues furnace permits over the counter by email, followed by inspection, and we handle both. Xcel Energy provides gas and electricity. The city also has a local incentive that pairs with Xcel's all-electric heat pump rebates, open to homeowners until its budget runs out. Combined with the state's $1,000 air-source heat pump tax credit and the $1,500 cold-climate rebate from DRCOG's Power Ahead Colorado, that can make a heat pump competitive with a new furnace. For historic homes without good ducts, read our mini-split guide.