Make Repairs To An Old Furnace Or Buy A New More Efficient Furnace?

If you live in a cold climate, keeping your home warm through the winter can be an expensive prospect. In years past, efficient heating was not a primary concern for furnace manufacturers, but to comply with government regulations and to help consumers keep their heating bills down, furnace manufacturers have created new designs that use fuel better than conventional designs. If you have a conventional furnace in your home that is in need of repairs, you need to consider whether you are better off buying a new furnace rather than fixing a furnace which will never be as efficient as you need it to be. 

The Flaws in the Design of the Conventional Furnace

When you burn a fuel inside your hour house, one of the main safety concerns is venting exhaust gases out of the home. While these super-heated exhaust gases are used to heat the heat exchanger, which in turn heats the air flowing into your home, it is still necessary to vent these gases out of your home before they cause damage. The conventional answer to this problem is to leave enough heat in the gases that they will be able to rise up out of your home through a vent pipe. Unfortunately, this residual heat in the exhaust gases means that your furnace will never achieve better than 83% efficiency. Remember 83% efficiency is an optimum rating. A malfunctioning furnace will run at considerably less efficiency. Repairing will help improve efficiency, but buying a new furnace will get you better efficiency than a conventional furnace will ever offer. 

The Improvements of the Condensing Furnace

A condensing furnace contains a second heat exchanger. This addition allows the furnace to extract so much heat from the exhaust gases that they condense to a liquid. Because of the chemicals in the exhaust gases, it is necessary for this second exchanger to be made from stainless steel so that it won't corrode. It is also necessary to allow for the liquid exhaust to escape from the furnace. A special drain pipe will guide the exhaust to a drain. Thus, if you want to have a condensing furnace in your home, you need to make sure you put your furnace close to a drain. The improvements described here allows the condensing furnace to achieve up to 98% efficiency. 

If you are sick of high heating bills, you don't have to simply put up with a cramped budget, nor do you need to repair a furnace that will continue to let you down from month to month. Instead, you can invest in a new furnace. Even if you have to finance your new furnace, you should be able to free up money in your budget. In some states, you can also get tax breaks for replacing an outdated furnace with a new, more efficient design. For these reasons, all homeowners living with an older furnace should look into buying a new furnace for their home. For more information, speak with experts like Arlington Heating & Air Conditioning.


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