FURNACES

How does a furnace work?

At its heart, a furnace burns a fuel. That fuel could be oil, natural gas, propane gas, pelletized wood, coal or even plain firewood. All furnaces burn something and the vast majority, in North America, burn gas or oil. Gas and oil fired furnaces have a burner. New furnaces use solid-state electronic ignition. Old furnaces will sometimes still have a pilot light.

Once the fuel is burned, in the furnace the heat given off is used to warm a circulating medium of either water or air. Furnaces with a water boiler usually are used in older houses with steam-radiators or in houses with hydronic, under-floor, heated floor systems. Note that if you are building a house with an underfloor heating system that you will still have to install a full duct system throughout the house for the air conditioning system and also if you want air filtration, humidification etc.

What does a furnace do?

In essence a Furnace burns a fuel and uses the heat of combustion to warm a circulating medium of air or water. The furnace then provides the warmed circulating medium to either a blower or a pump to be circulated through the building in which it is installed.

“A furnace, by itself cannot save you as much money as a furnace with a programmable, set-back thermostat and a good humidifier “

What type of furnace will save me the most money?

High efficiency furnaces have efficiencies as high as 96% and always over 90%. A high-efficiency furnace will always save more money than other types, over time.

When should I buy a high efficiency furnace?

The answer is simple – whenever you are staying in a house long enough that the difference in fuel cost between a mid-efficiency (80%) furnace and a high effiency furnace will pay for the difference in price between the two. Unless you are only keeping a house only temporarily and have to have a furnace to keep warm the high efficiency furnace will be the better choice – and more environmentally friendly, too!