Size is everything

Buy a furnace according to cooling and heating needs of your house. Do not buy an under-sized unit which will not produce enough heat and work hard to do so. In doing so, it will shoot up your utility bills. Over sized furnace is necessarily the better option. It continuously cycle on and off, which will impact the power bill as well as the health of the furnace. Frequent cycling will also make the room feel uncomfortable. The contractor should perform a Manual J load calculation to find out the system size you need.

Replace both the units

When you decide to replace your furnace, also check the status of your a/c. Determine if you have to upgrade both of them, then do it. It is a very economical option. If replacing both is beyond what you can spend currently, at least try to change the indoor coil of the air conditioning system now. It will be less costly than changing the whole unit later.

Temperature Control

The thermostat can be called the brain of a furnace. Therefore buy a reliable programmable thermostat. You must utilize the programming features of these thermostats to save on energy cost. You can programmer the furnace to operate at lower temperature when the house is empty and crank up high when the house is occupied. Newer thermostats are easier to program.

System Type

In central hating systems you will get two options – split and packaged system. Both are efficient. However in split systems you will have two units, one located inside the house and other is placed outside. There will be a conduit connecting the two. In packaged units there will be a cabinet which will contain all the parts. It will be outside the house. If you do not have enough space in basements, crawl spaces and attics to place the indoor unit of a split system you can go for a packaged one. If you had a split system before, but now you want to save some house space for more storage, then buy a packaged system this time

Fuel Source

As for fuel sources a furnace mainly runs of oil, gas or electricity. Gas furnaces that run on natural gas have less operational cost than electrical furnaces. This is because price of power is rising every day. Oil furnaces are also good options but they make your house dirty. Moreover oil prices are quite exorbitant is some areas. But in areas where gas lines are not available, oil and electric furnace are choices. Heat pumps are also an economic option in heating. They produce almost three times the energy for the power they consume. This rate is much higher for geothermal heat pumps. However the latter is very costly to install.

Zoning Systems

In central heating stem you have thermostat located at a central position. In this case hot or cold spots are felt all over the house. In fact you could be using more energy than necessary to keep your home at the desired temperature. You should go for zoning system. It will divide the house in various zones. Each zone will be controlled by a thermostat. You can adjust heating level of individual zones with these. You can keep the unoccupied areas at moderate levels. Additionally, dampers within your ducts can open or shut off access to different zones to keep the temperature even all over the house. .

Variable Speed Blowers

There are two types of furnace blowers — the variable-speed blower and the fixed-speed blower. They fixed systems have one stage of heat output, which is high. They give out maximum heat that they are incapacitated for in all weather conditions. The multi-stage furnaces have variable speed limits. They will regulate the heating level according to the need.

Beside this the installation of furnace is a critical task. Even if you buy a high efficiency unit, an incorrect installation will bring down it output level. So hire a good contactor for installing it even if their charge is a little towards the higher side. Talk to your contractor about offers on warranty.

Buy the furnace in the off seasons such as spring and fall when the prices for installation drop down. At these times the industry’s business cycle goes slow. They offer you rebate on services to grab business. There are various rebate schemes that you should take advantage of. The U.S. Federal government has a certain tax credit. There are also many local rebates in place that could further lower your total out of pocket cost.