Things You Need to Know About Choosing a Furnace

With winter weather just around the corner, it’s time to stop putting off buying a new gas furnace and preparing your home for the colder temperatures. Before you begin shopping, we’d like to share 3 simple thoughts on choosing a furnace.

These are the things that you should know before you spend a significant amount of money on a major expense that should provide you with years of service.

We will cover the basic things you should know about furnaces and get you pointed in the right direction in deciding what your home requires in terms of heating capacity.

AFUE Ratings

What you have to do first is to decide the AFUE rating that best suits your particular needs. AFUE stands for Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency.

The rating determines the efficiency of the furnace and is roughly the equivalent of British Thermal Units or BTUs.

If you live in an extreme cold-weather area, you’ll want to look at furnaces that have no less than a 90 AFUE rating.

If you live in a milder climate you probably will be able to save around $1,000 by buying a furnace having an 80 AFUE rating. You’ll also save on gas bills by using a lesser rated furnace.

Once you’ve made your choice on the AFUE rating, you can use the second of our 3 simple thoughts on choosing a furnace to further narrow your choices down.

Available Options

Gas furnaces come in a range of different styles to fit multiple applications of use. A central heating system gives you the greatest amount of options in a single heating system and it’s the most obvious choice for a large home.

Central heating uses electric fans to distribute the heat throughout the home, so if you decide to go with this choice, you’ll have to factor in electricity costs to the cost of heating.

But there are also other options to choose from. Some of the more high-efficiency furnaces are known as condensing furnaces. These are typically furnaces that have over AFUE ratings of over 90.

They derive so much heat from the flue gases that they develop water condensation that needs to be vented.

Radiant heating is another option. These furnaces heat water instead of air. The hot water is then circulated through a series of pipes and delivered to radiators in each room or through pipes imbedded beneath the floors.

Another option is wall heaters for smaller homes. These are small heaters that are installed in the walls of a room and connected to the gas supply. The wall heater is economical in that you only heat the rooms that you are using.

Whichever type of furnace you choose, you’ll be unlikely to make a bad choice by following these guidelines. Worried about repairs? Enhanced Heating and Air Conditioning services all makes, models, and brands of furnace!

Choose a Reputable Supplier

The final of our 3 simple thoughts on choosing a furnace is simply to seek the help of a reputable furnace supplier like Enhanced Heating and Air.

They’ll do the calculations necessary to point you toward a furnace that provides you with ample heat for the size of your home and they’ll show you a range of options depending on the size and layout of your home and work out the best option both economically and logistically.

Call Enhanced Heating and Air today, before the weather makes you wish you had.