A Look At High-Performance Features On Today’s Furnaces

If the furnace in your Florida home is more than 15 years old, it’s probably quite a bit less efficient than systems on the market today. While your furnace could have an efficiency of less than 70 percent, high-performance systems available now have efficiency ratings as high as 99 percent. If you’re shopping for a more efficient furnace, look for these features.

• Sealed combustion — Instead of using indoor air for combustion, sealed-combustion furnaces draw in outside air through a PVC pipe. This maximizes efficient use of warm indoor air, prevents drafts, lowers the risk of corrosion and helps to keep combustion gases out of your indoor air.
• Condensing heat exchanger — Condensing furnaces have two heat exchangers instead of just one. The second heat exchanger draws heat from the first exchanger’s exhaust gases. This feature captures heat that a less efficient furnace would send up the flue.
• Fuel-saving ignition — Conventional pilot lights burn fuel continuously. To save fuel, modern energy-efficient furnaces use hot-surface igniters or intermittent pilot lights. An HSI works by radiating heat when the thermostat calls for the furnace to turn on. A sensor detects this heat and starts the furnace burner. An IP starts the burner with a spark.
• Variable-speed blower motor — Electronically commutated motors, which are quiet and highly efficient, maintain a consistent temperature in your home by delivering warm air more slowly when you need less heat.
• Variable heat output — Some furnaces with variable blower speeds can also vary the heat output, based on your immediate heating needs. This improves efficiency and helps maintain consistent temperatures.

To learn more about the high-performance features on today’s furnaces or upgrade your furnace, contact Rinaldi’s Energy Solutions. Since 1969, we’ve been providing reliable HVAC service to Orlando-area homeowners.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Orlando, Florida and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about High-Performance Features and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

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