The efficiency rating of your furnace replacement will have a significant effect on both indoor comfort and the amount of money you spend to keep your home warm. When selecting a new furnace, pay careful attention to the unit’s AFUE rating to make sure you get the most efficient furnace possible.
AFUE ratings are a measurement of furnace efficiency applied to both electric and fuel-burning furnaces. AFUE stands for annual fuel utilization efficiency. The AFUE number indicates the percentage of energy in the fuel that will be converted to heat that can be used to warm your home. For example, in a natural gas furnace with an AFUE of 90, at least 90 percent of the energy in the gas will become heat when the fuel is burned The other 10 percent of the energy will be lost through dissipation, leakage or ventilation.
In Canada, fuel-burning furnaces must carry a minimum AFUE of 90. It’s true that high-efficiency furnaces are usually more expensive to purchase than their lower-efficiency counterparts, but the better units provide ongoing savings on heating bills that will compensate for the higher initial investment.
High-efficiency furnaces also have benefits beyond cost savings. They reduce the amount of greenhouse gases released into the environment, they improve indoor air quality, and they help with energy conservation in your community.
Additional features can make your new furnace even more efficient. For example, gas-condensing furnaces use a second heat exchanger to extract additional heat from the furnace’s exhaust gases, increasing overall efficiency by recovering most of the exhaust heat before it is vented outdoors.
Arpi’s Industries Ltd. has spent the last 50 years providing top-level heating and air conditioning services for their Calgary-area HVAC customers. Contact us todayfor more information on furnace efficiency and AFUE ratings. We can help you find a new high-efficiency furnace that will heat your home effectively at the lowest possible cost.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Calgary, Alberta about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about AFUE ratings and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
