Last week we went into details about gas furnace efficiencies, specifically the AFUE rating and whether it means you’ll save energy with a high-efficiency furnace or not. It’s a question that is best left to a professional to answer.
However, we want you know that we definitely encourage consumers to look into high-efficiency furnace options when they start looking around for a new installation or a replacement for an older heater. The AFUE ratings of furnaces are higher than they’ve ever been: older furnaces used to average between 56% and 70% AFUE ratings, which meant wasting between 44% and 30% of the natural gas the furnace burned. Today, furnaces range from 85% to 98.5% AFUE, and the ENERGY STAR requirement for a furnace is 90%.
But why exactly are furnaces able to perform at such energy-saving levels today? There are several reasons.
