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Home Heating - Home Comfort - Efficiency

How efficient is your furnace?

Home Heating Options Gas Furnaces - Forced Air Electric Air Handlers -Typically Matched with Heat Pump Heat Pumps - Up To 500% Efficient! Hydronic Air Handlers - Matched with Boiler Boilers - Hot Water Home Heating IMS - Integrated Mechanical System (Hybrid) Oil Heating

You may be paying the gas or oil company 40% more than you need to!

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If your furnace or boiler is older than 20 years, chances are it is a good investment to replace it with a high-efficiency model with the guidance of a good contractor. Also consider a replacement now if your system is one of the following:

• Old coal burner that was previously switched over to oil or gas
• Old gas furnace without electronic ignition. If it has a pilot light, it was probably installed prior to 1992 and has an efficiency of about 65% efficient (the least efficient systems sold in Canada today are 80%, or 90% for gas furnaces)
• Old gas furnace without vent dampers or an induced draft fan (which limit the flow of heated air up the chimney when the heating system is off).

If your furnace or boiler is 10–20 years old, and you are experiencing discomfort or high utility bills, Climate Works highly-qualified technicians can help you evaluate your existing system. Often it will be more cost-effective to repair or insulate ductwork, or tune up your system.

Because no two houses are alike, it is very difficult to advise what kind of new system will be the most appropriate, efficient and cost-effective for your house without actually visiting your home. Climate Works offers free in home evaluations to determine the best system and the best investment for your home.

Furnaces

The efficiency of new furnaces is measured by the annual fuel utilization efficiency (AFUE), a measure of seasonal performance. Furnaces today are between 78% AFUE and 96% AFUE. Traditional "power combustion" furnaces are 80-82% AFUE. Above 90% AFUE, a furnace is "condensing," which means it recaptures some of the heat wasted in traditional systems by condensing escaping water vapor. Consider the following when selecting a new furnace:

• Condensing Models
  As of January 2010, only condensing furnaces (AFUE 90% or higher), may be sold in Canada.

• High Electrical Efficiency.
  A furnace can use a significant amount of electricity, mostly to power the fan motor. Variable speed fan motors are generally more efficient than standard (“PSC”) motors and may save you hundreds of dollars per year. Electrically efficient furnaces can be found on the Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association's website (www.gamanet.org).

• Proper Sizing
  Make sure the heating capacity of the furnace is not too high for your home. Many exisitng furnaces are substantially oversized. The best furnaces today modulate their heat output, matching the heat requiement of the home as the weather changes.

Boilers (Hot Water and Steam)

The efficiency of new boilers is given as the annual fuel utilization efficiency (AFUE), a measure of overall performance. Boilers manufactured since 1992 must have an AFUE of at least 80%. In comparison, many old boilers have AFUE ratings of only 55-65%. To get the most out of your new boiler, consider the following:

• Buy ENERGY STAR (AFUE of 85% or higher)
  If you want to know what manufacturers produce high-efficiency boilers, check the ENERGY STAR list. Climate Works strongly recommends condensing boilers that operate at the highest possible efficiency. In addition to efficiencies up to 98%, these boilers also allow modulation of gas input and water temperature. Much like modulating furnaces, they use only the energy required to heat the home as the weather varies.

• Control Options
  Ask your contractor about different controls that reduce the amount of heat lost through the pipes during off-cycle periods or off-peak (warmer) days. Today there are many technologies available. Controls that modulate the boiler water temperature to reduce off-peak losses work better with condensing boilers. Ask about the cost of purchasing a boiler that has integrated controls compared to the cost of purchasing the controls as an add-on.

• Low electricity usage
  Tell your contractor that you would like a boiler that has low power usage. The Gas Appliance Manufacturers' Association website includes information on AFUE and annual electricity use in its product database. The actual amount of electricity used in your home will vary with your local weather and home characteristics.

• Indirect Water Heater
  Modern boilers with low thermal mass and good insulation can actually make very efficient water heaters, because they don't both heat and store water at the same time. When installing a replacement boiler, consider replacing your existing storage water heater with a well insulated indirect tank that connects to the boiler with an external loop. Even in the summer you are likely to save energy because heat losses through the water heater flue will be eliminated and the boiler providing the hot water operates at efficiencies well beyond typical water heaters.

Air Source Heat Pumps

Central heat pumps operate much like a central air conditioner except that they can reverse the cycle in the winter to deliver heat to the house. They are much more energy-efficient than electric furnaces; however, conventional air-source heat pumps are only appropriate in mild or warm climates. Because heat pumps provide both heating and cooling, they have two efficiency ratings: seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER), and heating system performance factor (HSPF). When selecting a new heat pump, look for the following:

• High Seasonal Efficiency
  ACEEE recommends SEER at least 14.5 and HSPF in the range of 9.0. Heat pumps meeting these performance criteria can be found by running a search in the ARI/CEE HVAC Directory.

• Compatibility
  Depending on the indoor unit installed, SEER and HSPF can vary significantly within the ranges of efficiency provided for the outdoor condensing units. Make sure all of the components of the system are designed to work together. Check with your contractor or visit the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute to see the specific SEER and HSPF values for the combination you are considering.

Ground Source Heat Pumps

Because temperatures underground are nearly constant year-round — warmer than the outside air during the winter and cooler than the outside air during the summer — a ground-source heat pump can be much more efficient than an air-source heat pump and appropriate for both warm and cold climates. However, they are less common and more expensive to install.

Despite the high cost, your energy bills might be lowered enough with a ground-source heat pump to justify installing one, especially if you need to replace your water heater as well. Most ground-source heat pumps are installed with a “desuperheater” that uses waste heat to heat water for no added cost during both heating and cooling modes. ACEEE would strongly recommend this option.

Several utilities have begun marketing ground-source systems as a superior alternative to air-source heat pumps. Visit the Geothermal Heat Pump Consortium for more information or to find a contractor who can help you.

Improve the Performance of Your Existing System

Proper maintenance can have a big effect on fuel bills and should be performed on a routine basis.

• Clean or replace air filters regularly.
• Clean registers. Warm-air supply and return registers should be kept clean and should not be blocked by furniture, carpets, or drapes.
• Keep baseboards and radiators clean and unrestricted by furniture, carpets, or drapes.
• Bleed trapped air from hot water radiators. Follow prescribed maintenance for steam heat systems, such as maintaining water level, removing sediment, and making sure air vents are working. Check with your heating system technician for specifics on these measures and use caution: steam boilers produce high-temperature steam under pressure.
• Tune up your system. Oil-fired systems should be tuned up and cleaned every year, gas-fired systems every two years, and heat pumps every two or three years. Regular tune-ups not only cut heating costs, but they also increase the lifetime of the system, reduce breakdowns and repair costs, and cut the amount of carbon monoxide, smoke, and other pollutants pumped into the atmosphere by fossil-fueled systems.
• Seal your ducts. In homes heated with warm-air heating, ducts should be inspected and sealed to ensure adequate airflow and eliminate loss of heated air. It is not uncommon for ducts to leak as much as 15-20% of the air passing through them. And leaky ducts can bring additional dust and humidity into living spaces. Thorough duct sealing costs several hundred dollars but can cut heating and cooling costs in many homes by 20%.
• Check for wasted fan energy. If your furnace is improperly sized or if the fan thermostat is improperly set, the fan may operate longer than it needs to. If you're getting a lot of cold air out of the warm-air registers after the furnace turns off, have a service technician check the fan delay setting.

Also consider the following tips for operating your system for maximum efficiency:

• Thermostats. Turn down the thermostat at night and when you're away from home. In most homes, you can save about 2% of your heating bill for each degree that you lower the thermostat for at least 8 hours each day. Contrary to some common myths, it won't take more energy to bring your home back to the desired temperature than it would to leave it at your optimum temperature all day. Turning down the thermostat from 70°F to 65°F, for example, saves about 10% ($100 saved per $1,000 of heating cost).

  Of course, you can use a good programmable thermostat to automate this process. IF it is programmed properly you can expect to recover the cost of the thermostat in the first year or so. If you have a heat pump, be aware that you need a special "adaptive" thermostat that will bring the temperature up from the setback point in winter without calling for the inefficient "emergency" electric resistance heat.

• Aquastats. The thermostat that regulates the temperature of a hot water boiler is called an aquastat. Normally, the aquastat keeps water in the boiler around 160-180ºF. In milder weather, however, you don't need to keep the boiler that hot. The aquastat can be set manually to 150ºF (120ºF or lower with condensing boilers), reducing fuel consumption by 5-10%. Many Condensing boiler are equiped with modulating aquastats (or outdoor resets) that automatically adjust water temperature depending on the outdoor temperature.