Heating your Asheville home each winter accounts for a large portion of your overall annual energy costs. And if your furnace is inefficient or unreliable, or if you and your loved ones aren’t as toasty and comfortable as you might like during the cold weather, you might want to consider upgrading to a new furnace.

If your current heating system isn’t providing these three essentials, it might be time for a change:

• Efficiency: Your furnace’s AFUE (annual fuel utilization efficiency) determines its efficiency. AFUE indicates how efficiently a heating system it converts energy to heat over the course of a year. The lowest allowed AFUE for a gas unit currently is 78 percent, which means that the system converts 78 percent of its fuel energy to heat for your home, while the other 22 percent is lost or vented outdoors inadvertently. If your system is more than 20 years old, its AFUE could be as low as 65 percent. A high monthly energy bill is the first sign that your system is inefficient. A new mid-efficiency furnace could have an AFUE of at least 80 percent, while a high-efficiency system’s AFUE could be as high as 98.5 percent, which could help you save as much as 50 percent on your energy costs and enable you to cut your emissions in half.
• Comfort: If you are running your heating system, and some rooms in your home consistently are cold, while others are warm, your furnace likely is working overtime to compensate, which will raise your heating bills considerably. Replacing your system may be the most cost-effective way to heat your home evenly and reduce your energy consumption and spending. An improperly-sized unit is a likely culprit, and your HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) professional can calculate your heating load, and determine whether the size of your current system is adequate.
• Reliability: An unreliable furnace is not only a headache, but will increase your energy bills while decreasing your comfort level. Reliability comes from a well-maintained system. If your system cycles improperly, runs excessively, or requires periodic service to keep it running, it’s time to replace it.

For more expert advice on replacing your furnace, contact the experts at Smoky Mountain Heating & Air, who serve residential and light commercial customers in Asheville and the surrounding communities.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Asheville, North Carolina and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).

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