Across 20181 half the owner homes are older than 1989 and half are newer, but the middle is thin. The 1990s added only 266 homes. The 1970s and 1980s together added 1,238, and the 2000s alone added 904. So Nokesville’s furnace and air conditioner pairs arrive in two bunches, and they come due in bunches too.
In a 1970s or 1980s house the builder’s pair is long gone, and the one there now often went in during the late 1990s or the 2000s. Before deciding, find the date on each: on the furnace it’s usually on the plate behind the burner door, outside it’s on the plate on the cabinet, sometimes buried in the serial number. When the years line up, both halves are wearing out together. An outdoor unit ten years younger than the furnace usually makes a furnace alone, $4,285 to $14,040, the better buy.
The 2000s houses are where the builder’s own pair may still be running, now seventeen to twenty-six years old, and an outdoor unit that old most likely holds R-22. The 401 homes finished since 2010 are a different story: their systems are younger and mostly run on R-410A, which is still serviced, so a breakdown there is usually a repair before it’s a replacement.
Size is the other Nokesville question. Of the 3,440 homes in 20181, 2,071 count nine or more rooms, and in a house that big the load is often split between a system in the basement and another in the attic. Where the house has gained rooms since the last pair went in, the new one gets sized to today’s floor plan.