SYSTEMS - HEATING
For most of us, heating is the first thing we think of in our environments-whether for heating new homes or buildings or as an important early step in renovation and HVAC repairs. There are several heating options to choose from, including gas, oil and electrical heating options that work through heating and air units such as furnaces and boilers:
Forced Hot Air, Boilers, Heat Pumps
Furnaces/Forced Hot Air
How They Work
Gas, oil and electric furnaces provide warm, even heat throughout your home by circulating heated air through HVAC ducts. Furnace heating is created by burning gas or oil inside your furnace. Hot gases that are created pass through curved metal tubing called a heat exchanger and then out of your home through a metal or plastic vent pipe. At the same time, the hot air that circulates through your home passes over the outside of the heat exchanger and takes on the heat from the hot metal. The warm air is then circulated through your home through your furnace air filter. Some mid- and high-efficiency gas hot air furnaces offer additional features that provide greater comfort, as well as additional energy savings.
Two-speed furnaces
Two-speed furnaces can run on low speed up to 90% of the time, so they operate more quietly and run for longer periods of time than single-speed furnaces. Longer operating periods translate into fewer on/off cycles, fewer drafts and much smaller temperature swings -- only one or two degrees instead of the four-degree swings common with single-speed furnaces. Plus, better air circulation helps prevent air "stratification" - warm air rising to the ceiling and cold air settling on the floor. In short, you get consistent, even heat throughout your home.
Variable-capacity furnaces
Variable-capacity furnaces provide the ultimate combination of comfort, efficiency and quiet performance. In addition to the benefits of two-speed furnaces, they offer "smart" motors than can monitor your home's comfort needs and automatically adjust the volume and speed of air to provide the most efficient heating or cooling.
Energy Efficiency
A furnace's efficiency rating, or AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency), tells you how efficiently the furnace uses fuel (gas or oil). In general, higher efficiency furnaces mean lower monthly operating costs for heating.
Heating and air conditioning systems are the biggest users of energy in the home, up to 75% of the utility bill. A new high efficiency furnace can save up to 50% in operating costs over a ten-year old furnace. Many 1990 and earlier model furnaces have efficiencies of 65% or less. The minimum efficiency furnace that can be sold in the United States today is 78%. Furnaces are available that are up to 96.6% efficient.
Payback
Usually, the higher the efficiency, the more expensive the initial cost of the furnace. You will probably see the higher cost of a high-efficiency gas furnace paid back through lower utility bills in a few short years. We use heating data from your area to help you determine about how long it would take you to recover the additional cost in energy savings. Of course, after the payback, you continue to save on your energy bills for the life of the system.
