Nobody wakes up wanting to buy a furnace. You are here because yours is 18 years old and making a noise, or a tech just said the words "heat exchanger," or the repair bills are stacking up and you want to know if you are throwing good money after bad. This page lays out the whole decision the way we would explain it across your kitchen table: what replacement actually costs in Brighton, when repair still makes sense, what the rebates are worth, and what matters in a quote besides the bottom number.
Repair or replace? Here is the actual math
Every fall we meet Brighton homeowners staring at this exact question, usually with a dead furnace and a repair quote in hand. Here is the framework we use, and it works whether you hire us or not.
The 5,000 rule
Multiply the repair cost by the age of the furnace. Under 5,000, repair it. Over 5,000, put the money toward replacement. A $250 ignitor on a 12 year old furnace is 3,000. Fix it. A $1,100 blower motor on a 16 year old furnace is 17,600. That repair buys you a 16 year old furnace that still has a 16 year old everything else.
When repair is the right call
- The furnace is under about 12 years old and this is its first real failure.
- The repair is a wear item: flame sensor, ignitor, capacitor, pressure switch.
- The heat exchanger and blower check out healthy.
- You are planning to sell within a year or two and the furnace passes inspection. A working older furnace rarely kills a sale; spend the money where buyers see it.
When replacement wins
- Cracked heat exchanger. This is the big one people search for, so let us be plain: a cracked heat exchanger is not fixable. Nobody can patch or weld one and have it hold. The exchanger can be replaced as a part, but the labor is heavy and it only pencils out when the part is under manufacturer warranty on a newer furnace. On anything past 12 years, a cracked exchanger means a new furnace. And it is not optional to address, because a breached exchanger can push combustion gases, including carbon monoxide, into the air your blower sends through the house.
- Major component failure past year 13. Control boards, inducer motors, blower motors, gas valves. Each is a four-figure repair on equipment that is already in its retirement window.
- Repeat repairs. Two service calls in a heating season is the furnace telling you something.
- Rising bills and uneven heat. Furnaces lose efficiency as they age. If bedrooms are cold, the furnace runs constantly, and the Xcel bill climbs every year, replacement fixes the comfort problem and the bill problem at once.
One more honest point. A furnace that dies in January gets replaced in a hurry at whatever price the first available contractor quotes. A furnace replaced on your schedule in September or October gets competitive quotes, rebate planning, and your choice of equipment. If your furnace is past 15 and limping, fall is the cheapest time to act.
What furnace replacement costs in Brighton
Real numbers, because nobody publishes them and everybody wants them. Installed prices for a typical Brighton single-family home:
| System | Installed cost | Who it fits |
|---|---|---|
| 80% AFUE single-stage | $5,500 to $7,500 | Budget replacements, homes with existing metal B-vent where changing venting is impractical. Least efficient option allowed. |
| 92 to 96% single-stage condensing | $6,500 to $9,000 | The value sweet spot for most Brighton homes. Qualifies for utility rebates at the higher tiers. |
| 96%+ two-stage, variable-speed blower | $8,500 to $11,000 | Better comfort, quieter, steadier temperatures, best rebate eligibility. Our most common recommendation for homes people plan to stay in. |
| 97%+ modulating, communicating | $10,000 to $13,000 | Top-of-line comfort for larger homes, like the 3,000+ square foot houses in Todd Creek. |
What moves the price inside those ranges: furnace size (a 100k BTU furnace costs more than a 60k), venting changes (going from an 80% furnace to a condensing furnace means new PVC intake and exhaust runs and a condensate drain), ductwork corrections, and access (a furnace in a crawlspace or tight closet takes longer than one in an open basement). A quote should itemize this. If a bid is one number on a sticky note, keep shopping.
Rebates and tax credits: do not leave this money on the table
Brighton is Xcel Energy territory for both gas and electric, and Xcel pays real rebates on qualifying high-efficiency furnaces. The highest-efficiency tiers pay the most, and the rebate often covers most of the price difference between a base furnace and a much better one. Amounts and qualifying tiers change year to year, so we put current rebate numbers in writing on every quote and file the Xcel paperwork for you.
Separately, the federal 25C tax credit covers a percentage of the cost of qualifying high-efficiency furnaces up to an annual cap, and a larger amount if you go with a heat pump. Speaking of which: if your AC is also near the end of its life, ask us about pairing the furnace decision with a heat pump or a full system replacement. Xcel's heat pump rebates are substantially larger than furnace rebates, and doing both systems at once saves on labor. Details on the cooling side are on our AC replacement page.
Sizing a furnace for Brighton means accounting for a mile of altitude
Here is something the out-of-a-truck bids skip. Brighton sits at roughly 4,980 feet. Air up here is thinner, which means less oxygen per cubic foot, which means a gas furnace cannot burn at its full rated input. Manufacturers require a high-altitude derate, and the practical effect is that a furnace labeled 80,000 BTU delivers meaningfully less heat in Brighton than it would in Kansas City.
Two failure modes come from ignoring this. First, a furnace sized to the nameplate without the derate comes up short on the handful of nights each winter when it is below zero and the wind is ripping across the open ground east of town. Second, and more common, contractors "solve" altitude by jumping up two sizes, which gives you a furnace that short cycles its whole life, wears out early, and heats unevenly. The right answer is a load calculation on your actual house, insulation, windows, and orientation, then the derate math, then the equipment choice. It takes us an extra half hour at the quote stage. It is the difference between a furnace that fits and a furnace that happens to be on the truck.
What install day looks like
- We confirm the equipment and price from your written quote. No day-of surprises.
- Old furnace comes out, and we protect floors on the way through. Most Brighton changeouts start around 8 am.
- New furnace goes in with new sheet metal transitions, not force-fit onto old plenums. If you are moving to a condensing furnace, we run the PVC venting and condensate drain and route it properly so it does not freeze, which matters here.
- Gas pressure gets set for altitude, temperature rise gets measured and dialed to the manufacturer spec, and the thermostat is configured for the new equipment's stages.
- We walk you through the filter, the shutoffs, and the warranty registration, then haul off the old unit. Typical total: 4 to 8 hours, heat the same night.
What the cheap bid usually skips
Sometimes the cheap bid is fine. But furnace installs fail on the details you cannot see from the invoice: gas pressure never adjusted for altitude, temperature rise never measured, venting sloped wrong so condensate pools, oversized equipment because nobody ran a load calc. The furnace itself is a commodity. The install is what you are actually buying, and it is why two furnaces with the same badge can have ten-year lifespans that differ by half. Every install we do gets combustion numbers and temperature rise recorded on the invoice, so you have proof it was set up right, which also protects your manufacturer warranty.
Furnace replacement FAQ
How much does it cost to replace a furnace in Brighton?
$5,500 to $12,000 installed for most homes, depending on efficiency tier, size, and venting work. The table above breaks it down. High-efficiency units cost more up front but come back partly through Xcel rebates and lower gas bills.
Is a cracked heat exchanger really not fixable?
Really. It is a welded steel assembly that expands and contracts through thousands of heat cycles, and once it cracks there is no repair that survives that movement. Exchanger replacement under warranty is the only repair path, and it only makes financial sense on newer furnaces. Past 12 years, replace the furnace.
80% or high-efficiency? Which should I buy?
In most Brighton homes, high-efficiency wins. The gas savings are real in our long heating season, the rebates close most of the price gap, and condensing furnaces vent through the wall in PVC, freeing you from the old metal chimney. The main case for an 80% unit is a furnace location where running new PVC venting is impractical.
Can I replace just the furnace and keep my AC?
Usually yes, if the AC is healthy. The furnace blower drives the AC airflow, so we match the blower to your existing coil and check the fit. If your AC is also 15 years old, it is worth pricing both together, because doing them separately costs more in total labor. See the AC replacement page for that side.
Do you take away the old furnace?
Yes, haul-off and disposal are included in every install quote.
What size furnace does my house need?
There is no square-footage shortcut worth trusting at our altitude. A 2,000 square foot home in Brighton might need a 60k furnace or a 90k furnace depending on age, insulation, and windows, and the altitude derate changes the equipment selection. We run the load calculation as part of every free quote and show you the numbers.
We replace furnaces throughout Brighton and in Lochbuie, Todd Creek, Reunion, and Henderson. Quotes are free, in writing, and good for 30 days.