How to Install an Electric Furnace

Lead Image for How to Install an Electric Furnace
  • 8 hours
  • Intermediate
  • 500-1000
What You'll Need
Electric furnace
Power socket and cord
Tools to dig a hole in the wall (if opting for a bigger furnace)
Insulation materials
What You'll Need
Electric furnace
Power socket and cord
Tools to dig a hole in the wall (if opting for a bigger furnace)
Insulation materials

Installing an electric furnace is not a job just for everybody, and especially if you want a complex duct system to heat up multiple rooms, calling qualified personnel is highly advised. However, if you are worried about the costs, and want to try things out by yourself, here’s what you need to know.

Make the Decision

The first thing you need to do is decide if you want to provide heat for just one room or create a duct system to deliver heat to other rooms too. Based on that, you should be able to figure out what type of furnace you want. If opting for a bigger furnace to serve multiple rooms, make a plan so you know exactly how many fitting the furnace needs to have, or you might end up with a furnace that’s too small for your plans and some cold rooms.

Find a Place for the Furnace

If opting for a small furnace, just for one room, the place is not very important, the only important requirement is to have a power socket around. Instead, if you choose to go with a bigger furnace to serve more rooms, adequate placing is required. Besides the power socket, it requires an air intake source, which will mean a hole in your wall might be needed in order for the furnace to have an air source. Also, make sure the power line is heavy-duty, you might even need to provide a heavy-duty special wiring system in order not to have all the fuses blown every time the furnace starts. When seeking the perfect place, also take into account the clearance from combustible materials. Although an electric furnace only provides hot air, continued exposure of combustible materials to hot airflow is not recommended.

Setting Up the System

Once you have your furnace and the position for it, it’s time to get to work. If simple electrical furnaces are pretty much just plug and play, a bigger one is a bit harder to mount. Dig the hole in the wall and fix the furnace in place. Make sure you isolate the edges very good so cold air doesn’t get in or heat doesn’t get out. Once you have the furnace in place, find a suitable track for the ducts. Bring ducts to every room you want to get heated, and finally connect them all to the furnace. Be careful when doing the joints because a bad joint might lead to leaks and a cold room.

When using a small furnace, the airflow is not a very important factor, as it will gather its air from the room, but when dealing with bigger systems, airflow is vital, so make sure the outside fan of the furnace is not blocked by any obstacles, or you will get very poor hot airflow from your furnace.