New Heating and Cooling for Your Cicero House

The Town of Cicero holds 13,584 housing units, and the median home was built in 1980. Only 49.6 percent predate 1980, and 19.1 percent went up in 2000 or later. Houses from 1939 or earlier make up just 6.9 percent, so an older house is the exception here, and if you own one it needs its own set of questions.

Utility gas is the heat source in 76.5 percent of Cicero's occupied homes, and electric heat serves 17.6 percent. Another 4.1 percent rely on fuel oil, kerosene or bottled gas. About 81 percent of homes are owner occupied and about the same share are detached houses. So you are most likely deciding for yourself, and you can ask each contractor how the quote fits your heat source.

Ask how your furnace vents today. If it already exits through a side wall, find out whether the water heater was dealt with when that furnace went in. Either way, make the contractor say what happens to the water heater.

Size comes next. A unit copied from the old nameplate can run too big. NYSERDA advises contractors to run their own calculation instead of installing a like-sized unit. Ask each bidder for the worksheet on your house, then lay the size it produced beside the size on the quote.

Ducts come third. Name the rooms that never feel right, and see what each quote does about them.

On permits, the town's list of building-permit work names heat producing devices, chimneys and vents. Have your contractor say who applies and where the permit number will appear in your paperwork. If your address falls inside the Village of North Syracuse, ask that village office instead.

If you are weighing the whole system, you can ask a bigger question. Does the house still need the furnace it has, or would a heat pump carry part of the load? You do not have to decide on the first call. Collect bids that answer the same three questions, and you can compare them honestly.