Most of the territory doesn't need a furnace. Some of it really does.
Furnaces are sold hard in Florida every November. Cook's would rather tell you when one makes sense and when a heat pump is the better machine.
The myths
“Florida gets cold enough that you need a furnace.” It gets cold enough that you need heat, for a few weeks. A heat pump supplies it on all but a handful of mornings, at a fraction of the running cost of either a furnace or electric strips.
“A furnace is cheaper than a heat pump.” The furnace alone can be. But a furnace doesn’t cool, so it needs an air conditioner beside it, and the pair costs about what a heat pump does. The heat pump then heats for less.
“Gas heat is the only heat that feels warm.” Furnace supply air is hotter, and some people prefer it. That’s a real preference, and Cook’s respects it; it just isn’t a necessity.
“A high-efficiency furnace saves a fortune.” Not when it runs two hundred hours a year. The premium for a 96- or 98-percent furnace pays back over many winters in Ohio and almost never in Ocala.
The reality for this territory
Furnaces make sense in three situations. The house has natural gas and the owner wants to keep gas heat, in which case a Lennox gas furnace matched to a Lennox air conditioner is a well-engineered system. The owner wants both economy and hot supply air, in which case a dual-fuel system (a Lennox heat pump for the mild days, a Lennox furnace for the freezes) is the best of both. Or the home is on propane in the rural counties and already has the tank and the lines.
Outside those cases, Cook’s will say what it believes: buy the heat pump.
What Cook’s installs and maintains
Lennox gas furnaces in single-stage, two-stage and variable-capacity lines, as part of matched systems or dual-fuel pairings, with the venting, combustion-air and condensate work the code requires and a combustion analysis at startup. Propane setups where that’s the fuel. Specific model numbers appear on your quote.
On the service side Cook’s maintains and repairs furnaces of every brand, gas and electric, with the heat exchanger inspection and combustion check that a furnace demands and a Florida homeowner rarely thinks to ask for. Oil furnaces are rare here; ask whether Cook’s services them. [[CONFIRM WITH JERRY]]
The right fit, by home
A gas-served 1980s Jacksonville ranch with a working furnace and a dead air conditioner: a matched Lennox air conditioner and coil now, the furnace replaced when it fails. A new owner of a gas-served home who wants lower bills: dual fuel. A propane farmhouse near Live Oak: a Lennox furnace sized to the house, with a heat pump if the budget allows. A heat-pump home anywhere on the coast: no furnace at all.
Free estimates, financing with low monthly payments, and warranties registered by Cook’s apply to furnace installs as to every other system. Lennox furnaces carry a separate, longer heat exchanger warranty; ask for Cook’s labor terms in writing. [[CONFIRM WITH JERRY]]
Furnace questions, answered without the sales pitch
Which parts of the territory actually use gas furnaces?
Jacksonville’s older neighborhoods and parts of the Clay County suburbs have natural gas service; propane furnaces appear across the rural counties from Putnam up to Suwannee. The coast and most newer subdivisions run heat pumps or strip heat.
Is a two-stage or variable furnace worth it for a few weeks of use?
The comfort difference is real, but the fuel savings over a Florida winter are small. Cook’s usually suggests a solid single- or two-stage Lennox furnace and spends the difference on the cooling side.
What's the lifespan of a furnace that barely runs?
Long, if it’s maintained: the heat exchanger isn’t cycling thousands of hours a year. Twenty years is realistic. The parts that fail are ignitors and sensors, which are cheap, not the exchanger.
Not sure a furnace is the right buy?
Ask for the dual-fuel comparison. Free estimates in every market.