Factoring Rising Gas Costs
The rising cost of gas has put many people in the market for a more efficient furnace before the cold winter weather arrives. Even though most homeowners in Atlanta have always considered their cooling bills as the place to conserve the most energy dollars, a furnace upgrade gives the best and the quickest return on investment.
There are two different furnace efficiency categories available today and there are three basic types of gas furnaces regardless of the manufacturer. The two different efficiencies are 80% AFUE and 90% AFUE and the three types are single stage, two-stage and variable speed two-stage furnaces. AFUE stands for annual fuel utilization efficiency with the higher the number denoting the most efficiency.
80% AFUE Furnaces
An 80% AFUE efficient furnace is the most popular type installed in Atlanta and it uses 80 cents of a dollar's worth of gas to heat your home and it sends 20 cents of waste up the chimney. The 80% AFUE furnace has no standing pilot light and it uses a metal exhaust pipe to vent the unburned gas and carbon monoxide fumes away from your home. It has a blower/fan called the draft inducer that injects air into the burner chamber to help the combustion process. This type of furnace will normally save 25% to 40% of the gas consumed by an old standing pilot type.
90% AFUE Furnaces
A 90% AFUE furnace is so efficient that it no longer uses a metal flue pipe to take the waste products away but rather is vented right out the sidewall of your home using PVC piping and it takes fresh air for the combustion process from the outside instead of depleting the air in your home. This type of furnace is called a condensing furnace and like the 80% AFUE furnace, the 90% AFUE furnace also has no pilot and it has a draft inducer fan for a good clean burn. It has two heat exchangers to help the furnace use all but a very small amount of the gas burned to heat your home. The most efficient furnaces today are 96.7% AFUE and only waste 3.3 cents on the dollar of gas consumed. The 90% AFUE furnace is so efficient that water is condensed from the flue products and has to be disposed of in a sanitary drain or a freeze proof French drain. Within these two furnace categories, the three types are very similar in what they have to offer.
Single Stage vs. Variable Speed
The single stage furnace is what most people are used to owning and regardless of what the temperature is outside, it puts the same amount of heat out constantly. When one considers that a furnace has to be large enough to warm your home on the coldest day of the year, but the winters in the southeast can fluctuate from extreme cold to moderate, it would be logical that this type of furnace will heat the home very quickly on anything but the coldest day of the year. This quick heating only heats the air in your home, not the articles, walls, floors and people. The two stage furnace solves this problem by having two stages or levels of heat that the furnace can produce; low and high. The low heat setting will allow the furnace to run longer at a lower heat output which will allow a more evenly heated home and much more comfortable occupants. The variable speed two stage furnace has two stages of heat, but combines the efficient operation of a D/C powered variable speed furnace blower to give you just the right amount of heat needed to achieve the most comfort available from any forced air natural gas furnace today. The D/C powered variable speed blower will save you over $200 a year in electrical costs while speeding up or slowing down to give you just the right amount of heat needed.
One can also couple a special thermostat that has input for not only the desired temperature, but also the humidity levels one wants to maintain in their home. The thermostat adjusts the fan speed of the indoor blower and the furnace/air conditioner become a Super Dehumidification System. This product can eliminate the need for a freestanding dehumidification system that is seen in so many basements. Regardless of which furnace you choose, I think you will find a world of comfort and efficiency available today that will be worth every penny spent to upgrade. You simply cannot afford not to take advantage of the savings afforded you by a furnace replacement this year.