If the time has come for your household to make a furnace replacement, then there are a number of different factors that need to be considered. Before you make any purchase, you have to decide if you’re more concerned with your finances in the short term, or your finances down the road. By spending more money initially on a higher-efficiency, more reliable furnace, you can save yourself money down the road.
If you do decide to prioritize your future finances, then you want to pay close attention to the energy efficiency of any potential furnace replacement, and AFUE ratings are a great way to compare this. AFUE stands for annual fuel utilization efficiency, and it’s a rating designed to gauge how well a furnace is able to convert energy into heat. The higher the unit’s AFUE rating, the higher percentage of energy it successfully puts to use during the process of heating your home. Any energy it’s not able to convert, however, is essentially put to waste.
Since you pay for all of the energy you put to waste, it goes without saying that you can save money on those monthly heating bills, both now and in the future, by purchasing a furnace with a higher AFUE rating. In addition to those guaranteed savings, though, higher-efficiency furnaces are also more reliable, meaning they come at significantly lower risk for things like breakdowns or other serious technical problems. Those repair costs can add up quickly.
Granted, it’s going to cost more money off the bat if you go with a new, sealed combustion heating furnace with an AFUE rating in the 90 to 95 percent range. However, if your furnace replacement ends up being an older model that uses an exhaust fan, pilot light, or natural draft to control the flow of heating, the AFUE rating won’t be nearly as high, and it’s going to end up costing your household significantly more money down the road.
So, look at your furnace replacement as an investment, and consider the future. For all your HVAC needs, contact us today!
