Furnace Replacement - Things You Need To Know

It’s Murphy’s Law that the furnace never goes out in the summer. Well maybe it does but unless you are using it you will never know. When the furnace finally draws its last hot breath of air you know its about time for a furnace replacement. And if you are like most homeowners the furnace was probably an old outdated relic that came with the house and was due for an upgrade anyways. 

Hopefully you are one of those people that took advantage of the time you did get with your dying furnace to save up a slush fund to replace it. But whether or not you are just scrambling for the furnace replacement money or you already have a good bit set aside, you will want to be a smart consumer and get the best furnace system you can afford. 

When you are looking for a new furnace system there are some things to keep in mind to help guide you. The first thing to consider is what type of energy source you want to use. Gas is the most common type but you can also have a furnace that uses propane, oil or electricity as its energy source. 

The next question you have to answer is what kind of energy efficient furnace do you want and need. Houses built in the 1970’s generally had furnaces that only operated at sixty percent efficiency and you are likely replacing one from this era. The good news is newer furnaces operate at a much higher efficiency level. In 1993 a new federal energy standard required that furnaces operated with at least a 78% efficiency rating. 

Today you can select a mid range furnace that utilizes 89% of its energy efficiently or a high efficiency furnaces that utilizes 90% of its energy. 
The outdated furnaces that were around pre 1980 are generally over sized monsters that took up huge amounts of space and consumed large amounts of their energy source to output at a weak capacity level. The new models are a huge change from the old and may be a pleasant surprise for you. The new models are both smaller in size and more fuel efficient. 

When looking at the size of the furnace you are not just looking at the physical size, you are also looking at the Btu’s. A Btu or British thermal unit is the unit or measure of heat that the furnace puts out. The typical furnace is rated at 100,000 Btus but you can select a model that operates anywhere from 40,000 Btu’s to 200,000 Btu’s depending on the size you need for your home. The size you will need depends on a variety of factors. These factors include the square footage of your home, the number of windows in your home and your home’s sun exposure. A contractor is better able to help guide you through your furnace replacement, selecting a size after doing a heat loss evaluation and evaluating your home based on the criteria listed above.