First Choice Heating & Cooling Blog: Posts Tagged ‘Electric Furnaces’

Pros and Cons of Electric Furnaces vs. Gas Furnaces

Monday, September 11th, 2023

You have so many options available when it comes to heating your home. While many homes rely on gas furnaces, they’re not necessarily the top choice anymore. Other HVAC machines are constantly improving and contending with combustion-based heating, like the electric furnace.

You likely have a ton of questions about getting an electric furnace in Fenton, so today we’re going to pit it against the age-old gas-powered furnace and try to answer the question: which one is better?

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This Might Be Broken on Your Electric Furnace

Monday, February 13th, 2023
thermostat-with-a-hat-on

Electric furnaces operate differently from combustion-based systems. Since they’re less common, it’s likely that you’ve just recently switched over and don’t know all the quirks of electric furnaces. We’re here to fill you in.

If you’re experiencing issues that you haven’t run into before, you could need a new electric furnace sequencer in Howell to fix the problem. Let’s go over all the reasons that this might be the issue and how to know for sure.

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4 Ways to Make Your Electric Furnace More Efficient

Monday, December 5th, 2022
Man spraying foam insulation for better home heating efficiency.

Electric furnaces have proven to be an energy efficient alternative to gas and oil furnaces, but they can still run into issues. You enjoy lower energy bills and more efficient heating, but there’s a huge possibility that you can make your electric furnace even more efficient.

Electric furnace efficiency can be achieved through internal and external means. Let’s talk about what you can do to improve energy efficiency before your next maintenance call.

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What You Didn’t Know About the Efficiency of Electric Furnaces

Monday, September 26th, 2022

money-saving-chimneyEfficiency. It’s one of the big buzzwords of the 21st century. When people shop for home appliances, they look for efficient devices that can lower energy demands and help the environment. Efficiency ratings can create confusion for homeowners, however, and one good example is with furnaces. 

Furnaces are the most common type of heating system found in residential buildings, and they account for an enormous amount of either natural gas or electricity consumption during a year. The right high-efficiency furnace can make a huge difference in utility bills. Unfortunately, when it comes to electric furnace efficiency, people unfamiliar with how efficiency ratings work can make assumptions about how much energy the furnace could potentially save. We’ll clear up this misunderstanding to help you look for the right electric furnace for your household.

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Does a High-Efficiency Furnace Guarantee I’ll Save Money?

Monday, February 15th, 2021

money-savings-seesawHigh efficiency is a common buzzword for many products today. Everyone wants high-efficiency appliances, because it helps lower energy use and contributes to the environment. 

However, we recommend any consumer be cautious when it comes to promises they hear about how much a high-efficiency appliance will save them. The important word to watch out for is will. Because to get straight to the question in the title, getting an appliance such as a high-efficiency furnace installed is not a guarantee of money savings. 

Looking into high-efficiency units is a good way to plan for energy savings, and we recommend customers investigate units with high AFUE ratings (more about this in a moment). But there are other factors to consider when it comes to a new furnace installation, and just focusing on efficiency can lead to wasting energy.

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Understanding Your Electric Furnace: The Sequencer

Monday, December 21st, 2020

heating-elementIf your house doesn’t have a connection to the municipal natural gas supply, you probably use electricity to power most appliances, including the heater. The most common type of electric central heating system is the electric furnace, which works on the basic principle of electrical resistance heating. Electrical current flows through wires in the heating elements, causing the elements to heat up. The air sent through the furnace picks up heat from the surface of the elements and then continues into the ventilation system to the rest of the house.

It’s easy to explain—not much different from how a toaster works—but there are special components involved that allow an electric furnace to work reliably and provide precision home heating. We’re going to focus on one of them in this post: the sequencer.

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Electric vs. Gas Furnace Efficiency—There’s a Trick to It

Monday, January 6th, 2020

money-saving-chimneyAre you looking to have a new heating system installed in your house? If you are, one of the most important bits of information you’ll want to find out about potential models is their efficiency. A high-efficiency furnace uses less energy to provide more heat, and therefore costs less to run.

Or at least, that’s what it seems to mean.

The truth is a bit more complicated. Efficiency is a rating of the heating output of a furnace compared to the amount of energy it uses. This doesn’t necessarily mean that a furnace with a higher efficiency rating will automatically cost less to run. A good example of this is the difference in the efficiency ratings of gas furnaces and electric furnaces.

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This Old Furnace: When It’s Time to Replace It

Monday, December 10th, 2018

ancient-furnace

We can’t imagine you harbor any nostalgic feelings about the furnace warming your home during the winter. Furnaces are not romanticized pieces of machinery; they’re kept out of sight and are entirely functional in appearance. You don’t decorate your furnace for the holiday season. (It might be dangerous anyway; the furnace needs to be clear on all sides.)

Where are we going with this? There’s no reason to keep around an old furnace just because. No attachment. Most of the time, the only thing holding people back from scheduling a replacement for an old furnace in Fenton, MI is the costs involved. But in most cases, it’s less expensive to have a new furnace put in, and often the safer choice.

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Can an Electric Furnace Handle My Heating Needs?

Monday, December 11th, 2017

cold-sweater-manWhen it’s time to have a heating system installed in your house, whether it’s a replacement system or the first system for a new home, you have more choices than ever before. Furnaces are by far the most popular type of residential heating system—but what type of furnace is right for your house?

The furnace debate often comes down to a duel between the electric furnace and the gas furnace. Gas furnaces create immense heat output. Can an electric furnace compete? Will one be enough to keep your family warm over the winter?

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