Important Tips to Consider When Purchasing a New Furnace

Buying a new furnace for your home may seem like a daunting task, but with the right information, you can easily choose a heating system that will serve your needs for many years to come. The following tips can help you identify what's important in a new furnace.

• Efficiency: The efficiency of your new furnace will determine how effectively it heats your home and how much it will cost to maintain indoor comfort during the colder months. Higher-efficiency models use less fuel and, as a result, provide heating for a lower cost. Look for a furnace with a high AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency) rating, usually 90 or above.

• Size: Proper furnace sizing is essential to buying a system that works well for your home. Sizing, in HVAC terms, refers to the system's capacity to produce heat and keep your indoor living spaces at the temperature you prefer. Have your HVAC professional perform a load calculation on your home. This is a detailed evaluation process that determines exactly how much heating is needed. When you have this information, you can easily find a furnace of the correct size.

• Fuel type: Most often, you'll probably want to buy a new furnace that uses the same type of fuel as your old one. If you have a gas furnace, for example, you'll already have the utility connections in place for a new gas model. However, there are circumstances where you might want to change fuel types or switch to an electric furnace. Ask your HVAC expert for advice.

• Efficiency-boosting features: Additional components can be added to your furnace to boost performance and efficiency even higher. Variable-speed blowers, for example, provide a lower speed for use when less heating is required. This lower speed uses less energy and costs less to operate. Dual heat exchangers improve heat transfer functions.

Air Assurance offers expert heating and cooling services to customers in Tulsa and neighboring areas. Contact us today for more information on how to choose a new furnace and for expert help with selecting, installing and maintaining your heating system.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Credit/Copyright Attribution: “Dirk Ercken/Shutterstock”

Furnace Installation Coming Up? 3 Points to Ponder Prior

If you're in the process of shopping for a furnace replacement, there are a few things you'll want to consider. Selecting the wrong type of furnace will result in energy waste, excessive fuel and repair costs, and can also compromise your indoor comfort and air quality.

Make sure you discuss the following three points with a licensed HVAC contractor before moving forward with your furnace installation.

Sizing. Many homeowners automatically use their old furnace size as the guideline for their replacement. That can be a huge mistake. Since furnaces have an average lifespan of about 20 years or so, chances are the original HVAC contractor used "rule of thumb" measurements to determine the furnace size. These days, knowledgeable contractors use Manuals J, D, and S to get accurate load calculations and to determine the most energy-efficient HVAC equipment and design for your home. Among other things, accurate furnace sizing requires an inspection of your current HVAC system, building materials, insulation R-values and a conversation regarding typical home occupancy and furnace usage.

Energy and Cost Efficiency. Modern furnaces can have AFUEs as high as 97 or more. However, your contractor may recommend one with a slightly lower AFUE depending on your needs. The key is to find the best system in terms of energy consumption and fuel costs, as well your household budget. Your contractor can use a series of calculations based on your home's energy efficiency, current fuel prices and projected fuel costs to select a furnace with an AFUE that will pay for itself, and possibly more, over time.

Fuel source. Fuel prices are always fluctuating. The most affordable fuel when your original furnace was installed may not be the most cost-effective option now. Talk to your HVAC technician about your options, including wood pellets or geothermal heat pump, which may be wiser investments in today's market.

Once your new furnace installation is complete, make sure to observe annual maintenance appointments, or sign up for a maintenance plan to reduce lifetime repair costs.

Need a new furnace installation in your Broken Arrow area home? Contact Air Assurance.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about furnace installation and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.Image courtesy of Shutterstock

Confused About Furnace Efficiency Ratings? Here's Your Expert Guide

If you're in the market for a new furnace, one of the first things you'll encounter are furnace efficiency ratings. These ratings tell you how much of the fuel the system uses that goes directly into your home as heat and how much the furnace wastes. There's a close relationship between the ratings and the size and price of the furnace you need for your home.

The efficiency ratings for gas furnaces are called AFUE (annual fuel utilization efficiency). The minimum starts at 80 which means that the furnace uses 80 percent of the fuel it consumes for heating your home and it wastes 20 percent of the gas up the chimney or elsewhere. Systems are available with AFUE ratings as high as 99 percent, indicating they waste a mere 1 percent of the fuel they use.

Furnaces whose AFUE ratings are over 90 are usually condensing furnaces and they use a second heat exchanger to extract the heat from the water vapor burned gas creates. These systems have a slightly different configuration than the normal gas furnace and a higher price tag, but their efficiency promises significantly lower energy bills for years to come, offsetting the cost. Some units provide up to 98% efficient capabilities!

Mid-range furnace efficiency ratings have AFUE ratings in the mid-80s and if your home won't easily accept a condensing furnace, such a furnace is likely to provide you with higher efficiency than your current system offers. Some of these use two-stage heating, an energy saver when temperatures are milder and your home's heating needs are lower.

The size you need and the AFUE rating are related. Since a furnace with a higher AFUE puts out more heat, you may not need as large a system, which generally costs less. The HVAC contractor you work with should perform a load calculation using Manual J and S, both of which take into account the variables in your home that contribute to the system size you need.

To learn more about furnace efficiency ratings, contact the pros at Air Assurance, providing outstanding HVAC services for homeowners in the Broken Arrow area since 1985.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). 

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Installing a New Furnace? Questions to Ask Your HVAC Contractor

If you’re planning on installing a new furnace or air conditioner, arm yourself with these questions to ask your HVAC technician before the installation process begins.

• Are you licensed and insured? Ask for the contractor’s license number and verify it with the Oklahoma Construction Industries Board. Then, ask whether the contractor has liability and worker’s compensation insurance. Odds are the job will go smoothly, but just in case, insurance guarantees you are not responsible for any accident or injury.

• Are you NATE certified? While you certainly want a contractor who is licensed and insured, take it one step further by asking about North American Technician Excellence (NATE) certification. This is the only third-party certification program for HVAC technicians recognized across the industry.

• Can you give me references and a written bid? Check with references and compare bids from three or more contractors before making your choice.

• How will you size my new furnace? If the contractor says they plan on installing a new furnace based on square footage alone, look elsewhere. This inaccurate rule of thumb won’t provide the accurate sizing you need for efficient performance and maximum home comfort. Formal calculations are found in Manual J, and that’s what you want your contractor to refer to when sizing your new HVAC equipment.

• Are there any rebates available? Many companies consider this a hassle. Paperwork, delayed payment, etc can deter them from doing the right thing. Always ask or do your research. WIth the many rebates available currently, you can purchase higher efficiency units at the same cost as the lower efficient units for the same net cost!

• What energy efficiency should I choose? Discuss all your options with the contractor and figure out your return on investment for more costly but also more efficient furnaces so you can make an informed decision.

• What about warranties? Compare warranty options between units. Get any guarantees from the contractor in writing.

• Will someone come and inspect my system? It’s common practice for the contractor to revisit your home about one month after installation to verify the furnace is working correctly.

• What maintenance should I perform? Taking good care of your furnace after it’s installed will help it perform efficiently and last years longer. Learn about changing the filter and sign up for a maintenance agreement.

Air Assurance is a reputable, affordable contractor in Broken Arrow. To start the process of installing a new furnace, contact us today.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). 

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HVAC Contractor Practices That Should be Dealbreakers

Choosing an HVAC contractor isn't always an easy task. Since you probably don't need regular HVAC work unless you've already subscribed to a maintenance plan, you may be unsure whom to choose, even if several contractors provide great references. What is easy, however, is quickly walking away from any contractors who engage in any of these deal-breaking practices:

1. Making a low-ball offer

Everyone wants to save money and some contractors rely on this to lure unsuspecting customers. If you need a major air conditioning, heating or sewer repair, make sure any quotes reasonably cover a professional spending a few hours at your home, travel time and the parts needed. If someone is offering to do the job for far less than the other contractors, it's likely they're untrained, are planning to cut corners, or will be looking to add on fees after the work has started.

2. Sticking to rules of thumb

Rules of thumb are great for ballpark estimates in a first conversation, but they should be followed up by further examination to make sure your needs are met. Selecting the right size for a furnace or air conditioner, for example, involves much more than a simple square footage calculation. An HVAC contractor trying to sell you something based on a rule of thumb may be trying to rip you off.

3. Giving phone quotes

Phone quotes are inaccurate because rules of thumb estimates don't work. An HVAC contractor needs to see your home to give an accurate final quote. Otherwise, they may just be trying to low-ball you. Think carefully before choosing their quote.

If you need an HVAC contractor you can trust for your repair or installation, contact Air Assurance. We have the solid reputation that comes with satisfying our customers since 1985.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). 

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Two-Stage Furnaces: Find Out How They Do Their Job

According to the U.S. Government's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 70 percent of American homes are heated by furnaces. Of those, the majority are the single-stage variety – which are likely what you think of when you hear the word "furnace". The operation of a single-stage furnace is simple: it's sized so that it can heat your entire home to a comfortable temperature in the coldest outdoor conditions your geographic region experiences.  When it's not that cold out, and your furnace is in operation, it switches on or off, generating heat until your comfortable temperature is reached or exceeded, and then switches off until the home cools enough for it to turn on again.

While there's a certain elegance to this performance, it also has drawbacks. The fluctuating level of sound from a furnace turning on and off continually is distracting to some, as is the accompanying temperature fluctuation. A system designed for extreme conditions often uses more energy than one designed for nominal conditions. And any mechanical system that switches on and off frequently experiences more wear than one that doesn't.

These are the problems that a two-stage furnace solves:

A two-stage furnace can operate at two capacities: high and low. The high capacity is your traditional furnace, able to handle the coldest temperatures nature will throw at you. But the lower stage is meant for the cool but not frigid weather – it's sized to keep you warm in the cooler parts of spring and fall, not the nadir of winter.

This means that with a two-stage furnace, each season has a heating system sized to warm you continually and minimize disruption, and that you're not paying for the heavy lifting in seasons where a lighter touch will do. Offering energy savings as well as increased home comfort, these systems are attractive options for homes in climates with a range of cooler temperatures.

If you want more, currently, there are "modulating" furnaces.  These take out the high/low, and actually modulate at any BTU rating within the spectrum.  Talk about serious comfort and efficiency!

To learn more, or to schedule a contractor visit today, contact Air Assurance Heating, Cooling & Air Quality. We're always here to help our clients in the Broken Arrow area.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). 

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