Furnaces can be one of the most expensive systems in your home. Knowing whether your furnace is energy efficient can help you make decisions when it comes to energy use. Here are three ways you can tell if your furnace is energy efficient:
1. Find Out Your Furnace’s AFUE Rating
AFUE stands for annual fuel utilization efficiency. It is a standard rating that measures how efficiently your heater converts fuel into energy. The AFUE rating will be between 0% and 100%. If your AFUE rating is high, that means your furnace is efficient; if your AFUE rating is low, that means your furnace is not very efficient.
You can find your heater’s AFUE rating in the user manual or sometimes on a sticker on the furnace itself.
2. Consider the Age of Your Furnace
While the AFUE rating is a good indication of energy efficiency, the rating tends to get worse over time. The AFUE rating can decline as much as 5% every year in furnaces that are not well maintained.
Even furnaces that have had regular maintenance will begin to wear over the years and will naturally become less efficient. In addition, furnaces that were considered energy efficient ten years ago probably do not compare to today’s energy-efficient technology.
3. Pay Attention to Your Energy Bills
It is natural for your energy bills to change a bit depending on the season and your lifestyle. Fluctuations in energy costs can also contribute to occasional changes.
However, if you notice that the amount of energy you’re using every month is steadily going up, that may be a good indicator that your furnace is losing efficiency.
Space Heaters vs. Furnaces
When it comes to energy efficiency, you may wonder whether it makes sense to use energy-efficient space heaters to warm up rather than using your furnace. While it is true that space heaters use less energy than furnaces, space heaters are only intended to warm small spaces.
If you are only trying to warm up one room in your home, space heaters are the way to go. On the other hand, if you are relying on multiple space heaters to heat the whole home, that’s really a job for your furnace, and you’ll end up using more energy with the space heaters.
Let the Experts Help Make Your Home Energy Efficient
If you are interested in improving the energy efficiency of your home furnace, call the experts at Rowland Air. We can help make recommendations from small tweaks to entire system replacements.