With the arrival of a cold north wind and crisp, falling temperatures, you may find yourself drawn to the cozy, heated retreat of your home. Welcome to heating season!  

To keep comfortable when outdoor temperatures fall, you may turn to a gas furnace or heat pump to heat your home. When installed and functioning as designed, these central heating essentials provide warmth and indoor comfort — even when outdoor temperatures become frigid and frosty. Let’s take a closer look at central heating equipment that helps make you comfortable during the heating season!

The Efficiency of a Gas Furnace

High heating bills can make you hot under the collar — which can be really uncomfortable!  So, it’s important to know about the energy efficiency rating of your gas furnace. Every gas furnace model is rated for its efficiency with an Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) percentage number. The higher the number, the more efficient the gas furnace is rated.

Let’s break it down. If a gas furnace has an AFUE rating of 80%, it means 80% of the energy of the fossil fuel is being converted to heat. A 98% AFUE rating means that only 2% of the energy is not transferred to heating capacity. So when you think about what it costs to heat your home with a gas furnace, consider the AFUE.

Comfort Features

Some gas furnace models come with features that may improve your comfort level during the heating season. One of these features is the gas furnace’s “stage.” The stage is all about the gas valve and the burner.

Single-Stage Gas Furnace: This type simply operates either as ON or OFF. It doesn’t offer the option of adjusting the gas flow. This is similar to turning your burner on the stove or grill on high and then off.

Two-Stage Gas Furnace:  A two-stage gas furnace has two settings: high and low. This feature allows for operation depending on your heating needs — full gas flow for when more heat is needed or a lower flow for milder days.

Multi-stage or Modulating Gas Furnace: Like the heat on a gas stove or grill, the burner can adjust from high to low, and multiple levels in between. Once the gas furnace heats your home to your desired indoor temperature, the burner automatically adjusts to provide just the right amount of heat required to maintain the set temperature.

The Details of a Gas Furnace

1. Propane or natural gas fuel generates heat in the furnace’s burners.
2. The heat produced passes through a heat exchanger.
3. Air from the home’s ductwork is blown over the heat exchange, warming the air.
4. The furnace’s blower then forces the heated air into the supply ductwork,  distributing it throughout the home.
   
   

Heat Pump

If you use electricity to heat your home, you may rely on a heat pump to keep you warm during the cold months of the year. From the outside, this equipment may look similar to an air conditioner. In fact, a heat pump is capable of cooling your home just like an air conditioner. But when temperatures fall, a heat pump is designed to reverse the heat transfer process and create heat inside your house.

Yes, that may sound hard to believe, but it’s true! Today’s heat pumps can pull enough heat energy from freezing outdoor temperatures to provide warm, comfortable temperatures in your home. Heat pumps aren’t just used in locations with mild winters. Advanced engineering and technology have allowed these split systems to be used in areas with extended periods of subfreezing temperatures.

Efficiency Ratings

Like most people, you probably want to spend as little money as possible on home heating. But, you also want to stay warm and comfortable in your home. That’s why it’s important to understand the efficiency rating of heat pumps.

Just like other home heating equipment, every heat pump model achieves a specific heating efficiency number. This number is called the Heating Seasonal Performance Factor, or HSPF. That number represents the total heat output of a heat pump, including its supplementary electric heat, as compared to the total electricity consumed in watt-hours during the same period.^* If you are looking for a high-efficiency heat pump, compare one model’s HSPF to another. The higher the number, the more efficient it is rated.

Comfort Features

You may not realize how many enhanced features are now available on modern heat pump systems. These advanced features are designed to boost your indoor comfort level and could possibly save you money on your monthly utility bills. Some heat pump models feature a two-stage or variable speed compressor. This may sound complicated, but it allows the heat pump to operate at different speeds – giving your heat pump more operational options that simply ON or OFF.

If it’s too cold inside, your heat pump’s compressor and circulating fan may operate at 100% heating capacity to reach the desired temperature. But to maintain that temperature for longer periods of time, the system’s compressor and circulating fan may be able to pull back on its output from 100%. This is where two-stage or variable speed technology comes in.

Benefits of a heat pump with a two-stage or variable-speed compressor includes:

Consistent Indoor Comfort – With its ability to adjust output, your two-stage or variable speed heat pump may minimize the hot and cold peaks and valleys often found with the ON/OFF cycle of a single-stage unit. The lower stage capacity is able to maintain the pre-set temperature longer than if the system turns off when it reaches the pre-set temperature. This allows for steady heating in your home.

Dehumidification – When it’s cold and damp, the longer run times at lower speeds of a two-stage or variable speed model allow additional time for moisture to be removed from your home’s interior spaces. While the main job of your heating system is to alter the indoor air’s temperature, these comfort-creating pieces of equipment may lower the indoor humidity level as a by-product of the heating process. Better humidity control leaves you with more comfortable interior air.

Energy Efficient – You may think that because a two-stage or variable speed model operates longer than a single-stage unit that it would use more electricity, but that’s not the case! Electricity usage peaks when a system turns ON and operate at full capacity. Rather than cycling ON and OFF, the heat pump’s compressor adjusts to maintain the set temperature and therefore reduces energy consumption.

This article was included in the 2019 fall/winter edition of 2019 fall/winter edition of Just Comfort™ Magazine

*  Air-Source Heat Pumps. (n.d.). Retrieved from Energy.gov: https://energy.gov/energysaver/airsource-heat-pumps