Planning a heating installation in Phoenix while the rules on new equipment are still moving? The heating season here is short, which changes what makes sense to put in and what it is worth paying for. Adams sizes gas furnaces, heat pumps, and packaged rooftop units for the load your house actually has, and pulls the city permit when the job needs one.
Type, size, and whether the house can carry it
Three decisions get made before any equipment is ordered, and the order matters. First, what type of system the house should have. Second, how big it needs to be. Third, whether the ducts and the venting can carry what you are buying.
Type comes first because Phoenix has a genuine choice here that colder markets do not. A heat pump covers heating and cooling on one machine and suits a mild heating load well. A gas furnace paired with an air conditioner separates the two jobs and is often the answer where gas service is already in place and the ductwork is built around it. Neither is automatically right, and anyone who tells you otherwise before seeing the house is selling rather than sizing.
Size comes from a load calculation. Heating loads in Phoenix are small compared with most of the country, and the common mistake is carrying over whatever tonnage or BTU rating was there before. An oversized heater short cycles, heats unevenly, and wears out its ignition components early, the same way an oversized air conditioner does in July.
Then the practical constraints. A condensing furnace produces liquid condensate and cooler exhaust, so it needs drainage and a venting arrangement that an older atmospheric chimney will not provide. On a rooftop package unit that is a real piece of work, not a footnote. We look at all of it before quoting, and we tell you what the ducts need rather than discovering it on install day.
A heating system here is not a smaller version of a Midwest one. It is a different problem, because the equipment spends most of the year doing something else entirely or sitting still.
New equipment on tired ductwork underperforms in both seasons. We tell you what the ducts need before you buy, and we tell you when they are fine.
Non-weatherized gas furnaces currently have to meet a minimum of 80 percent AFUE, a Department of Energy standard that has been in place since 2015. Anything you buy and install now sits at or above that line, and most equipment on the market clears it comfortably.
DOE finalized a rule in 2023 raising that minimum to 95 percent AFUE for furnaces manufactured on or after December 18, 2028, which effectively means condensing equipment. As of August 2026 the rule stands, but it is unsettled. The D.C. Circuit upheld it in November 2025, the Supreme Court vacated that ruling in June 2026 and sent it back, and DOE has sought comment on delaying compliance to at least January 2030.
Split system heat pumps carry a national minimum of 14.3 SEER2 and 7.5 HSPF2, identical in every region and enforced by date of manufacture. Packaged heat pumps sit at 13.4 SEER2 and 6.7 HSPF2. If you go the heat pump route, this is the floor rather than the furnace rule.
City of Phoenix guidance requires a permit to add or relocate a furnace, air conditioner, or evaporative cooler, or to change unit size, capacity, or location. A new heating installation almost always lands inside that. We handle the permit as part of the job.
Both are correct answers in this city. Which one is correct for your house depends on the ducts, the gas service, and what you already own.
Adams installs and services both, so there is no house answer we are steering you toward. We are the HVAC contractors in Phoenix who will still be servicing whichever one you choose in ten years.
Verifiable rather than claimed.
Adams has installed heating equipment in Phoenix for more than seventy five years, across every era of local housing stock and every rule change along the way.
The Google rating and review count come straight from the listing rather than being typed into the page, so it moves when customers move it.
One shop on North 35th Avenue, locally owned and operated, with the parts counter in the same building as the trucks.
An install is scheduled work, but the line is open every hour afterwards, which is the part that matters once the equipment is yours.
Factory training and a direct parts channel on Carrier equipment, with installation and service on every other major brand in the Valley.
Every new unit purchased from Adams includes three years of maintenance in the price of the system, not sold as an add on afterwards.
It depends on what the house already has. Where gas service and suitable venting exist and the ductwork is built around a furnace, a furnace is often the simpler answer. Where neither is in place, a heat pump covers both seasons on one machine and suits a mild heating load. We size the house first and then talk about type.
Usually yes. City of Phoenix guidance requires a permit to add or relocate a furnace, air conditioner, or evaporative cooler, or to change unit size, capacity, or location. A new install generally falls inside that. We handle the permit rather than leaving it with you.
DOE finalized a standard in 2023 requiring non-weatherized gas furnaces manufactured on or after December 18, 2028 to meet 95 percent AFUE. It does not force anyone to replace a working furnace. Its status is genuinely unsettled: the D.C. Circuit upheld it in November 2025, the Supreme Court vacated that ruling in June 2026, and DOE has sought comment on delaying compliance. We will tell you where it stands when you buy.
A load calculation, not the rating of the old unit. Square footage, ceiling height, window area and exposure, insulation, and duct condition all feed it. Heating loads here are small, and carrying over the previous size usually means carrying over a mistake.
Yes, and it is common on flat roof homes and small commercial buildings across Phoenix. It changes the job rather than the equipment: roof access, curb work, condensate drainage, and venting all have to be planned rather than improvised on the day.
If you don't find your question addressed above, feel free to contact us.
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Start with a load calculation and a written quote. Arizona ROC 245268.
Adams Refrigeration has installed heating equipment in Phoenix since 1947. Book a time or call the line below, and we start with the load calculation rather than a catalogue.
