FURNACE EFFICIENCY

CUT YOUR HEATING BILL BY AS MUCH AS 40% WITH A HIGH EFFICIENCY FURNACE.

It’s plain and simple, higher efficiency means lower operating costs for you and being environmentally greener.

Cost Savings: If you have an older furnace (with an AFUE of approximately 60%), you could save up to 40% on your heating bills by replacing it with a new high-efficiency furnace! The cost to replace your old, inefficient furnace can be paid back through lower utility bills.

Call Mountainwest HVAC 801-936-2020 now to see how much you might save with a new high efficiency furnace.

ENERGY STAR:
Energy Star is a government-backed program helping businesses and individuals protect the environment through superior energy efficiency. Products with the Energy Star rating will be efficient and save cost on energy bills.

FURNACE EFFICIENCY:

AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency)

AFUE is the standard measurement of efficiency for gas furnaces. Given in percentages, this number tells you how much of your fuel is used to heat your home and how much fuel is wasted, the higher the AFUE rating, the greater the efficiency. Residential furnaces currently have AFUE ratings ranging from the minimum industry requirement of 80% to more than 96%.

AIR CONDITIONER EFFICIENCY:

SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio)
SEER is the measure of efficiency by which air conditioners and heat pumps are rated. The higher the SEER number, the greater the efficiency, and therefore, the greater the energy savings. Today, U.S. regulatory agencies require all new products to have a 13.0 SEER rating or better.

Two important factors to consider when purchasing a new furnace:

1.  Is your furnace correctly sized?
An oversized furnace (one whose capacity is too large) costs substantially more to operate than a correctly sized furnace. This is because oversized furnaces typically cycle on and off more often than correctly sized furnaces, and cycling on and off is more expensive than running at steady state.
The only way to know if your furnace is correctly sized is for your HVAC contractor to do a load calculation. A load calculation takes into account the size of your house, the insulation value of your windows, the amount of insulation in your walls and roof, and a host of other criteria to determine the appropriate furnace capacity.

If you are replacing an old furnace (as opposed to buying a furnace for a new home you are constructing) some contractors may argue that they chose a furnace as big as your last furnace. But your old furnace is often too large for your house..

2.  Is the efficiency of your furnace appropriate for your house?
High efficiency furnaces typically cost more than average and low- efficiency furnaces. However, they tend to cost less to operate on a month to month basis as they use less fuel to generate the same amount of heat. Therefore, after a given payoff period, high efficiency furnaces tend to cost less than low efficiency furnaces.

However, high efficiency furnaces may not always be the most appropriate choice. (Your 90% efficient furnace will cost you more than your 80% efficient furnace if you move out of the house within the payoff period.  You need to consider a number of factors such as how long you plan to own your home, and which rebates are available.

Call Mountainwest HVAC, Inc. now at 801-936-2020 for our professional repair services.