Replacing a heating system is a big, costly, undertaking, but, Comfort Now can make it an opportunity to improve your home and save some money in the long run.
That was the case for a family in Oceanview. They knew it was time to replace their old heating system when the one in their single family home just couldn’t keep up anymore. Water wasn’t getting hot enough, and winters just seemed to get colder and colder.
Replacing a furnace isn’t something most people think about a lot, if at all. This family was no different. And, it turned out there was an extra challenge to replacing their old equipment. Fortunately for them, Comfort Now thinks about this sort of thing all the time. Our tech sat down with the homeowners, talked about what they needed, and looked over the options with them.
Now, their home is toasty and their water is warm. And, they spent a lot less than they thought they would!
Problem: An old 80-percent AFUE heating system wasn’t able to heat the home properly anymore.
Solution: Installed a high-efficiency Payne heating and cooling system and Bradford White power-vented hot water heater.
Even if this Oceanview family’s old system was in tip-top shape, it still wouldn’t be as efficient as the new system they’ve got now. That’s mostly because of its AFUE rating. The “Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency” number measures how much of the natural gas your system uses goes toward actual heating and how much is lost through exhaust.
In this older model, 20 percent of the gas went to exhaust. Their new model, however, has a 95-percent AFUE. That’s just five percent of gas going to exhaust — meaning more overall to heat the home.
This makes up for the fact that the family needed to get a power-vented water heater instead of a more common direct-vent model. The power-vented heater uses blowers or fans to push exhaust through vent pipes instead of vertical vents or through a chimney.
The extra energy will add a few bucks to their monthly energy bills, but it was the best bet here. Because of the house was laid out, there was no way to fit a heater near a chimney or set up a vertical vent.
Fortunately, this one drawback is balanced by other savings our Comfort Now tech found for this Oceanview family. For one, that higher AFUE rating brought the heating bill right back down. The utility bills for this two-story, single-family home were around $300 before the upgrade. Now, they’re down to $225.
That’s over the long term. For a quick, up-front saving, our Comfort Now tech told the family to apply for their utility company’s Energy Star program. South Jersey Energy offers rebates to people who upgrade their heating equipment to energy-efficient models.
The 95-percent AFUE heater fit the bill — to the tune of $1,200. That’s right, along with the monthly savings, this Oceanview family got more than a grand in rebates for choosing a top energy-efficient model.
Who knew buying a new heating system would actually save money? Well, Comfort Now did. And, now the people in this Oceanview home know it, too.