If you are looking for a more efficient way to heat your home, you may be interested in learning more about condensing gas furnaces. They retain more heat during combustion, making them far more efficient than standard furnaces. Some condensing gas furnaces boast an AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency) rating as high as 98 percent, as opposed to standard furnaces, which typically sport AFUEs around 80 percent.
AFUE measures the ratio of fuel that ultimately gets converted to heat. All condensing furnaces have an AFUE of at least 90 percent. This means it takes considerably less fuel, and therefore less money and energy, to keep your home warm.
A condensing gas furnace differs from a traditional furnace in that it has two heat exchangers as opposed to only one. In a standard furnace, the combustion process takes place inside a single heat exchanger, and a significant amount of heat escapes through the chimney as water vapor. To compensate for this heat loss, the furnace has to burn more fuel to warm up your home.
A condensing gas furnace, however, uses its second heat exchanger to extract the heat from the lost vapor from the first exchanger. The furnace is then able to pump this salvaged heat throughout the air ducts, heating your home with less energy. Once the gas is stripped of heat, the condensation drips down out of the heat exchanger, and fuel gasses are released through a PVC pipe instead of a chimney. The efficient retention of energy is reflected by the fact that the venting pipe is much cooler to the touch than that of a standard furnace.
If you would like more information about how a condensing gas furnace can heat your Southwest Illinois home for less money, please contact us at Ernst Heating & Cooling. We proudly serve Alton, Edwardsville, Troy, Hamel and the surrounding area, and will be more than happy to assist you with all your heating and cooling needs.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Hamel, Alton, Glen Carbon, Highland, Greenville, and Troy, Illinois and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).Â