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Call The Gentleman Pros Now!
(403) 879-1819
Heating and cooling account for the highest use of electricity in the average home. Here is a breakdown of what you can expect from your furnace based on the type and age.
Smart heating systems can add comfort and automation to your home. Smart home technology is known to add digital automation that can be automatically controlled and adjusted effortlessly from your phone. Smart thermostats and sensors are no different.
They help increase energy efficiency, with preset temperatures that can be automatically set to increase and decrease during the day. (For example, reducing temperatures at night and increasing them in the morning.)
Ecco modes can reduce the heat when people leave, and then increase it before people come, in order to save money and reduce energy consumption.
Presets can include a guest mode to decrease temperatures when your home is full of people, like when hosting.
Sensors can be added to living areas and main rooms to increase the temperature in rooms people use. SMART vents can be added to direct more heat to specific rooms.
High-efficiency furnaces are most often 95% efficient. More efficiency can be added depending on the number of stages of the furnace and modulating settings for the blower fan. (Likewise, A/C units can be more efficient depending on the number of stages and the ability to modulate.)
Mid-efficiency furnaces are common in homes built between 1990 and 2010. Upon installation, mid-efficiency natural gas furnaces are typically 78% to 82% efficient. Assuming proper installation, size and maintenance, you could still be throwing away 20 units of energy for every 100 units purchased.
As a mid-efficiency furnace ages, it becomes even less efficient. Over time, a mid-efficiency furnace may be only 55% to 70% efficient. Potentially, you could be throwing 45 to 30 units of energy away with every 100 units purchased.
Homes that were built before 1990 have standard efficiency furnaces, which may only return 50 to 60 units of heat for every 100 units of energy it uses. (That is assuming your standard efficiency furnace was installed correctly, is the right size for your home, and has been well maintained.) As a furnace ages, it becomes less efficient.
An electric furnace is more costly to run than a furnace that uses fossil fuels, such as natural gas. The gap in expense between a fossil fuel furnace and electricity has widened as the cost of electricity has increased drastically. In the US and Canada, the average electricity cost has more than doubled.
Investing in a gas or propane furnace, especially in colder climates, will save thousands of dollars in heating costs. Although the initial cost of installation for a gas furnace is more than that of an electric furnace, it will save money throughout the life of the furnace.
Any furnace, old or new, will become less efficient when it is dirty. A dirty furnace also loses a considerable amount of efficiency, causing the parts to work harder and wear out faster. The cost to replace furnace parts has become more expensive as the technology inside the furnace improves. Consequently, the homeowner must invest in regular cleaning and maintenance to save on monthly utility bills and extend the life of the furnace.
Sadly, most often, homeowners learn that their furnace has aged out after a cold snap when HVAC technicians are in high demand. Brham recommends getting your furnace inspected and cleaned every year. Not all furnace cleaning is the same. Having your air ducts cleaned and then your furnace blown out by someone who is not a professional will not be nearly as helpful as a trained HVAC specialist who can clean and test each part of the furnace. An HVAC specialist can detect issues before they turn into major problems. They will check and see if your furnace parts are working too hard or too little to perform their proper function, indicating a bigger problem.
Space heaters, which can help warm colder rooms or zones in your home, are particularly expensive to run. (Often in times of blizzards or cold snaps, municipalities will ask homeowners to turn off space heaters to preserve electricity.)
