Having a good heating system here in Gaithersburg is absolutely critical during the winters. We all love to go outside and play in the snow, but eventually we all want to go back inside to a warm home. When you decide to get a new heating system installed, there are a lot of things to consider before you move forward. At Tuckers Air Conditioning & Heating, we’ve been helping our customers in the Gaithersburg area with their heating installations for many years. We thought it would be helpful if we put together some of the most important things to consider before having your new system installed.
Size of the System
No matter what kind of heating system you’re getting installed, picking the right sized unit is crucial to the success of your system. We get calls for service all the time to homes where the furnace too big for the home. Here are some of the problems that can result from a heating system being the wrong size for the house.
- Short cycling – This happens when your heating system turns on, quickly heats up your home and then shuts off. A short time later when your house has cooled down, the system turns back on and then off again. Not only does this greatly reduce the efficiency of your system, it also causes more wear and tear on it.
- Uneven heating – When you have a heating system that is too big or too small, it can cause certain parts of your home to be too warm while other parts of the house are still cold.
- Reduced efficiency – While short cycling can cause reduced efficiency, the size of the ducts in your home also play a part in reducing the efficiency. If your home’s ducts don’t match the size of the system, your heater will have to work harder to push the air through them.
Efficiency Rating
This can be a confusing part of the process for many homeowners. There are a lot of different efficiency ratings and it can be hard to figure out what they mean. Here are a couple of the most common ones:
- Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) – The AFUE rating measures how much of the fuel consumed is converted into useable heat. Many old furnaces have an AFUE rating of 60% which means that they waste about 40% of the fuel. New furnaces can have an AFUE rating of up to 95% and higher.
- Heating seasonal performance factor (HSPF) – This is typically used to measure the efficiency of heat pumps in heating mode. It measures the total heat output over a heating season divided by how much energy it used.
If you need professional heating installation services in Gaithersburg, contact Tuckers Air Conditioning & Heating. We have experience working with all types and brands of heating systems. A good installation is one of the best ways to make sure that your heating system works well for many years to come. Call us today!