Home Heating - Home Comfort - Efficiency

How efficient is your furnace?

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If your furnace or boiler is older than 20 years, chances are it is well worth your while to replace it with a new high-efficiency model. 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 1990 and has an efficiency as low as 65%. (the least efficient Furnace sold in Canada today is 90% for gas furnaces)
• Old gas furnace without vent dampers or an induced draft fan (which limits 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. It may be cost-effective to repair or reconfigure ductwork, or you may need to tune up your system.

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 90% AFUE and 96% AFUE. Many furnaces installed in the 1990's and early 2000's are "power combustion" furnaces which are 80-82% AFUE. Above 90% AFUE, a furnace is "condensing," which means it extracts so much heat from the flue gas that it recaptures almost all of the heat wasted in traditional systems. 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 ECM fan motors are generally more efficient than standard (“PSC”) motors and may save you hundreds of dollars per year.

• Proper Sizing
  Make sure the heating capacity of the furnace is not too high for your home. Many existing furnaces are substantially oversized. The best furnaces today modulate their heat output, matching the heat requirement 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 after 1992 must have an AFUE of at least 80%, as opposed to many old boilers with 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. It is also beneficial to use the boiler for other uses, such as domestic hot water. Boilers are extremely versatile and can be used for radiant floor heating, pool heating, and even melting the snow on your steps or driveway among other things.

• Control Options
  Ask Climate Works about different control methods that can reduce the amount of heat lost through the pipes during off-cycles or on warmer days. There are many technologies available today, including controls that modulate the boiler water temperature to reduce losses and increase efficiency. These work better with condensing boilers.

• Low electricity usage
  As with furnaces, pumps required in boiler systems can have a large power consumption, adding dramatically to electrical bills. Climate Works uses only high efficiency pumps which dramatically reduce these costs, adding up to even more significant savings.

• Indirect Water Heater
  When installing a replacement boiler, consider replacing your existing storage water heater with a well insulated indirect water heater 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 as much as 30% higher that conventional water heaters. Where viable, many boilers can incorporate Tankless Hot Water Heating.

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. 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
  Climate Works generally recommends SEER at least 14.5 and HSPF in the range of 9.0. in most cases. Consider the capital cost along with not only the efficiency, but also other features such as sound level, or two stage operation that may be beneficial for your home. Heat Pump technology has dramatically improved over the last decade and can be a very good solution in areas where Natural Gas is not avaialble.

• Compatibility
  Depending on the indoor unit installed, SEER and HSPF efficiency 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. Climate Works ensures that all system components are matched to achieve the highest possible performance and provides independant varification of the system efficiency.. Newer heat pumps can work very effectively, even in our cold Ottawa winters, where temperatures may drop as low as -30C

Ground Source Heat Pumps

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

Due to the the high installation cost, your energy bills may, or may not be lowered enough with a ground-source heat pump to justify the cost of installing one. 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. The traditional wisdom is being challenged with the much lower cost and dramatically increased efficiency of today's air source heat pumps. It is well worth making a detailed comparison, including all costs.

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.
• 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.
• Clean 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 accumulate significant amounts of dirt, which can add resistance to the air flow, making it harder and more expensive to heat your home, as well as contributing to allergy and other health issues.
• 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 improve the comfort level in your home, as well as saving valuable heating dollars.. If you have a heat pump, you should look for a special "adaptive" thermostat that will bring the temperature up from the setback point in winter without calling for the electric resistance heat.

• Aqua-stats. The thermostat that regulates the temperature of a hot water boiler is called an aqua-stat. Normally, the aqua-stat keeps water in the boiler around 160-180ºF. In milder weather, however, you don't need to keep the boiler that hot. The aqua-stat can be set manually to 150ºF (120ºF or lower with condensing boilers) Many Condensing boiler are equipped with modulating aqua-stats (or outdoor resets) that automatically adjust water temperature depending on the outdoor temperature.