What to Consider When Buying a New Furnace

A new furnace is a big purchase and one you want to make wisely. There are many factors to consider while making that choice. Bigger is not always better. If you choose a furnace that is too big for your home it causes issues. One of the issues is short cycling which means the furnace turns on and off a lot which wastes energy and wears out your equipment faster. One of the things you need to know when purchasing a furnace is what size BTU you need? A BTU stands for British thermal unit and it measures how much energy is required to heat or cool one ton of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit. Bartlett Heating and Air uses the Manual J method of calculating this for your home. It’s a formula that takes square footage of your home and also incorporates the amount of windows, open space, and various other factors to get an accurate rating. You can get a rough calculation by taking your homes square footage including only the rooms that have heating and AC vents in them. You also have to look at the ceiling size too and take that into account. 8 feet is the norm but if yours are shorter or higher you have to compensate for that. Another thing you want to pay attention to when you buy your new furnace is the AFUE. That is its energy rating. The minimum rating is 80% which means 80% of the fuel burned is made into heat and 20% is wasted. Other choices that are higher efficiency are 92%, 95%, and 96%. The higher efficiency models are more expensive at first but they end up saving you money in the long run. Some of the higher efficiency models require you to be able to vent the furnace out through the wall so make sure that is possible before choosing a certain furnace. There is another choice to make which is single or two stage furnace. The two stage furnace is more efficient so it will save you on energy but also more expensive. The single stage only has two levels, on and off. Bartlett Heating and Air gives free installation quotes so call us today!