FURNACE & HEATING SERVICES
Heating Services
Choosing a Furnace System
These days, homeowners search for all the value they can find in every household purchase. When the time comes to replace a furnace in an existing central heating system or to install a completely new system, you want equipment that minimizes costs and delivers dependable comfort for your family – season after season. Here’s a look at some things to consider.
What do Good Furnaces Have in Common?
The best furnaces are efficient, keep a home warm and comfortable, and provide steady, dependable performance year after year. They are also quiet, long-lasting, and low in service frequency and cost.
Which Furnaces are Energy Efficient?
When a furnace loses or wastes heat, it requires more energy to keep your home warm. Some furnaces lose heat through the walls of the furnace cabinet. Energy-efficient furnaces like Rheem’s full line of state-of-the-art models significantly reduce this loss with a blanket of insulation that lines the inside of the cabinet walls.
When a gas furnace is not operating, most send a steady, wasteful draft of warm household air traveling up the venting system and out the roof. The Rheem Classic® Series and Classic® Plus Lines – with AFUE ratings of 78% and better – feature an induced-draft blower that works in conjunction with a hot surface ignition system to pull hot gases through the heat exchanger at a constant and controlled rate of flow. The draft blower stops as the burner cycles off, keeping the heating air in the system.
Pilot lights can also be wasteful. The electric ignition in many of Rheem’s furnaces eliminates the need for a constantly burning pilot. This feature alone gives up to 6% higher efficiency. Combined with an induced-draft blower, it can improve furnace efficiencies by over 20%.
Most gas furnaces vent combustion by-products and gases by allowing the warm air to rise naturally. However, on occasion, proper venting of combustion by-products may be restricted due to blockage, deterioration of venting systems, malfunctions, or other causes. The Rheem induced-draft blower maintains a constant draft through the heat exchanger, which assures proper venting of the furnace combustion chamber. Rheem also features a pressure switch that continuously monitors venting. If it senses a vent flow restriction, it will automatically shut down your heating system for your safety.
A high-efficiency furnace generally wears a higher price tag, but it can make up the difference by reducing operating costs over the long run. And with today’s consumer interest in efficiency, such equipment enhances the bottom line of your home.
Are some furnaces better than others?
Definitely. Features include heat exchangers that resist corrosion, direct-drive blower units, induced draft blowers, pressure switches, and an insulated blower compartment, which helps minimize operating noise.
You also should ask your contractor if the manufacturer of the brand you’re considering quality checks and tests every unit before it leaves the plant.
Be sure to check out the terms of the Limited Warranty. Quality manufacturers put an extensive warranty behind their work. Rheem furnaces, including all the features described here, offer one of the best. Even the primary and secondary heat exchangers in the Rheem 90 Plus® are protected by a Limited Lifetime Heat Exchanger Warranty.