Out With The Old, In With The New:Overland Park Furnace Repairs

A lot of people don't realize just how far furnace efficiency has come in the past few decades. Old furnaces can't compete with newer models. They break down more often and they cost a lot more to maintain warm temperatures. If you're like most people, you haven't even thought of replacing your furnace. The idea is to use it until it can't work anymore. The truth of the matter is that you may actually be saving yourself more if you buy a high efficiency furnace. Once you buy a new furnace you likely won't have to spend money on one for the lifetime of your home. The good news is you start saving money the day you get it.

How can you tell that it's time to buy a new furnace? Routine maintenance is normal for furnaces. But when you find yourself calling up HVAC companies to come out and do furnace repairs in Overland Park year after year, that should tell you something. Buying a new furnace can help you avoid spending money in repairs. But it also cuts down on your monthly bills. Furnaces today are much more efficient. Just because an old furnace puts out heat does not mean it is doing so in a way that is cost effective or good for the planet. Not only does this result in lower emissions for the environment, but this allows you to keep more money in the bank than you would otherwise.

To give governments and consumers an idea of how well a furnace operates, there is a special rating known as an AFUE, or Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency rating. By finding out how much fuel a furnace uses while turned on, and contrasting that with the amount of that fuel that got turned into exhaust, a rating is given. Older furnaces from the 1970s usually get rated at right around 65%. That translates to 45% of the fuel you pay for getting wasted as exhaust. A high efficiency furnace can essentially use far less fuel to get the same results as an older furnace.

There have been stricter demands put on furnace manufacturers. With environmental concerns in question, the government put rules in place that called for far higher efficiency ratings, producing new models with a minimum rating of 78%. The good news for consumers is that you can have far better than that. If you can believe it, there are furnaces with ratings as high as 98.2%. Only 1.8% of the fuel used by your furnace is wasted.

Those types of ratings are helpful to the environment. But they also help homeowners save money. If you switch to a high efficiency furnace with ratings in the 90s, you can expect your bills to drop by between 25%-30%. Putting off buying a new furnace when you need the help of an Overland Park HVAC company every winter doesn't make sense. It's time to get a new one. Stay warm this winter without having to pay an arm and a leg for it.