{"id":2496,"date":"2020-11-02T08:30:49","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T13:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/?p=2496"},"modified":"2020-11-17T13:28:13","modified_gmt":"2020-11-17T18:28:13","slug":"energy-star-rated-furnace-what-it-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/energy-star-rated-furnace-what-it-means\/","title":{"rendered":"The ENERGY STAR-Rated Furnace: What It Means"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2497\" src=\"https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/furnace-natural-gas-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"gas-furnace\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/furnace-natural-gas-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/furnace-natural-gas-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/furnace-natural-gas-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/furnace-natural-gas-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/furnace-natural-gas.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>You may be in the middle of deciding on a new furnace installation for your home. Fall is the best time to have this job done. If you\u2019re still on the fence about getting a new furnace, call our technicians for assistance. We\u2019ll provide you with honest and straightforward answers about whether it\u2019s time to send your current furnace to the scrapheap and put in a new one, or if repairs can keep a heating system working effectively and efficiently for a few more years.<\/p>\n<p>If you choose to have a new <a href=\"\/service-areas\/fresno-hvac-sheet-metal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">furnace installation in Fresno, CA<\/a>, you\u2019ll face more decisions. We can help you with this as well. In this post, we\u2019ll talk about installing a furnace that meets the ENERGY STAR requirements, a program by the Department of Energy that guides consumers to products that are energy efficient and have other beneficial features.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2><strong>How a Gas Furnace Qualifies for ENERGY STAR Certification<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The criteria for ENERGY STAR certification changes as technology improves and it becomes easier for furnaces to have higher efficiency. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.energystar.gov\/products\/heating_cooling\/furnaces\/key_product_criteria\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">current ENERGY STAR standards<\/a> (for California), a gas furnace must meet the two following requirements for certification:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A 90% or greater AFUE rating.<\/li>\n<li>A high efficiency, electronically commutated fan motor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There\u2019s plenty packed into those two requirements, so we\u2019ll break it down for you.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>90% or Greater AFUE<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><em>Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency <\/em>is the standard for measuring how efficiently a furnace changes its energy source into heating power. AFUE is the percentage of energy the unit converts into heating, with the remaining escaping as exhaust. So a furnace with 90% AFUE converts 90 units of every 100 units of natural gas into space heating.<\/p>\n<p>High AFUE is not a guarantee of cost savings. For example, electric furnaces have AFUE of 100% because they don\u2019t lose heat to exhaust. But the high cost of electricity often means electric furnaces are more expensive to run than gas furnaces.<\/p>\n<p>As a point of comparison, older mid-efficiency furnaces used to have AFUE ratings between 70% to 80%\u2014the standards have risen significantly.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Electronically Commutated Fan Motor<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Also known as an <em>EC motor<\/em>. This is a high-efficiency motor with electronic control so it can operate over a range of speeds. This allows the motors to combine the best of both AC and DC motors, with constant torque and airflow design. They have lower operating costs, can last for longer than the older types of motors found in furnaces, and operate at quieter levels. EC motors help furnaces achieve better results, lower costs, and longer service lives.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>We Recommend ENERGY STAR Furnaces<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>There are many high-efficiency furnaces on the market with the ENERGY STAR label (high efficiency means AFUE of 95% or greater), but buying a standard ENERGY STAR-certified furnace is still a big deal for your home and often the right price for a household budget. There are many extra options to consider for furnaces, such as multi-stage burners, but when you start with ENERGY STAR-certified units, you\u2019re already in good shape for a new system.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll be there with you at each step to ensure you have a furnace that meets your current and future needs.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"\/contact\/service\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Schedule your furnace service<\/strong><\/a><strong> with Purl\u2019s Sheet Metal &amp; Air Conditioning. \u201cQuality Is the Cornerstone of Our Success\u201d since 1952.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019ll be there with you at each step to ensure you have a furnace that meets your current and future needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[312,87,300,15],"vertical":[],"segment":[],"service":[],"class_list":["post-2496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-heating-service","tag-energy-star","tag-fresno","tag-heating-system-installation","tag-heating-system-replacement"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2496"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2500,"href":"https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496\/revisions\/2500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2496"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=2496"},{"taxonomy":"segment","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/segment?post=2496"},{"taxonomy":"service","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purlsheetmetal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/service?post=2496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}