Boosting The Efficiency Of Your Furnace

In the quest for lower heating bills, all is not done when you buy yourself a highly efficient condensing furnace. A furnace is only one element involved in efficiently heating your home. You also have to consider your air delivery system and the insulation of your home. Leaky HVAC ducts and poor weatherstripping around windows and doors can lead to a loss in efficiency and an uptick in the price for heating your home. 

The Problem with Leaky Ducts

An HVAC system is designed to deliver a certain volume of air to efficiently heat a certain area. When your system is first installed, it should have no problem delivering the right amount of heated air to the rooms of your house. However, over time the pressure of the air running through your ducts can cause problems at the seams and joints in your system. As air leaks through holes in the joints and seams in your system, the volume of air flowing into the rooms in your house decreases, and the overall efficiency of your system also decreases. In fact, leaky ducts can cut your efficiency by up to 20 percent. In order to preserve the efficacy of your heating system, you should have your ducts checked from time to time and have leaks repaired whenever necessary. 

The Risks Associated with Drafty Doors and Windows

The weatherstripping around doors and windows is designed to prevent air from flowing around your doors and windows. However, as you open and close your doors and windows, the movement puts strain on the weatherstripping, which will cause it to wear out over time. Faulty weatherstripping and the drafts that follow can decrease the efficiency of your furnace system by up to 12%. As hot air flows out of home and cold air goes in, you increase the frequency with which your furnace has to run, and the harder your furnace has to work, the more you have to pay to keep your home warm. 

It would be nice if you could simply install your furnace and never have to worry about the maintenance required to keep your furnace running efficiently, but we live in a world that falls far short of ideals. If you have a hard time affording your heating bills, or you would simply like to save money, you should look into anything you can do to help your system run as efficiently as possible. Talk to an expert like Moore & Russell Heating Ltd for more information.