Consider A Condensing Furnace When Upgrading
When people speak of a high-efficiency furnace, they’re talking about a condensing furnace. Condensing technology increases fuel consumption efficiency as much as 20 percent over a standard furnace. The technology is safer, produces more consistent household warming and reduces the environmental impact of heating your home. All this comes with a steeper upfront sticker price. However, in northern climates like Delaware, the substantial savings in energy costs may offset that initial investment in a matter of years.
Here’s an overview of condensing technology and how it benefits your budget and your interior comfort.
- Two exchangers are better than one: Standard efficiency furnaces and high-efficiency condensing furnaces both utilize a heat exchanger to transfer burner heat to the furnace airflow. However, condensing units also have a second heat exchanger that extracts heat energy from the condensing process of exhaust gases, saving energy while producing more heat.
- Fresh air combustion: Air to feed the combustion process is drawn from the interior of the house in the open combustion chamber of a standard furnace. High efficiency condensing units have sealed combustion chambers that aspirate outdoor air supplied by a PVC pipe. Interior humidity levels improve because water vapor in household air is not being continually dried out by the gas burner. This also eliminates dangerous back-drafting that can bring carbon monoxide gas into the home.
- Burner advancements: Condensing furnaces have smart burners that adjust burner output to the heating load. Once a cold house is warmed up or on temperate days when less heat is required, the burner output automatically defaults to a reduced setting that saves energy.
- Two-speed circulation: Blowers in standard units are on or off. Condensing furnace blowers operate continuously at lower speeds that vary according to the heating requirements. This continuous air circulation disrupts layers of hot air accumulating at the ceiling and distributes heat more evenly throughout rooms.
Let us lay out some of the other advantages of upgrading to a condensing furnace now for energy savings and comfort all winter long.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Wilmington, Delaware and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC & plumbing systems).
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