Home Series Booklets

Is it time for a new heating system?

Long-term Choice | Ask a Pro | Free Copy | Art Files

If you've lived in your home for several years-and the heating system was in place when you bought the house-it may be hard for you to determine if you've gotten your money's worth out of your current equipment. But consider this: ENERGY STAR® recommends replacing a furnace or boiler that's more than 15 years old (or a heat pump or air conditioner that's more than 12 years old) with a new, high-efficiency unit.

Here are some other clues that it's time to go shopping for a new heating system:

• Your heating bills are going up because the system is using more energy than in past years.
• The equipment needs to be repaired frequently-often for a different reason each time.
• Some of the rooms in your house are too hot or too cold, no matter how you adjust the airflow through the ducts.
• The system just doesn't seem to be working properly, even after a recent service call.
• The air in your home is exceptionally dry during the heating months.

Unfortunately, you often can't see what causes a heating system to waste energy. Beyond obvious clues such as a sagging duct that blows heated air into the basement, a noisy fan motor on a forced-air furnace or a leaking fuel line on a boiler, most of the energy-wasting problems will be hidden from view.

Make a responsible, long-term choice
Even if you decide to replace your heating system with one of the same type, buy the most energy-efficient unit your budget allows. Although you'll spend a little more money up front, you'll be many dollars ahead in the long run because lower utility bills will shorten the new equipment's payback period.

On the other hand, now may be the perfect time to significantly reduce your family's reliance on conventional energy sources by installing a more efficient heating (and cooling) system. For example, a ground-source heat pump (sometimes referred to as a " geothermal" heat pump) can give you up to four dollars of heating or cooling for every electrical energy dollar spent. As an alternative, a passive solar sunspace can reduce annual heating costs by up to 50 percent (compared to a similar house without passive solar heat), as well as allowing you to install a smaller conventional heating system as a backup for overcast days.

Ask a pro for help
Talk with several heating and cooling contractors about choosing a system and handling the installation for you.

In some cases, you may be limited by the choices available to you. For example, if you live in an older two-story home that already has radiators in place, it could be very difficult and expensive to install a new duct system for a forced-air furnace instead of a new boiler. However, if you're thinking about making a change-perhaps from a gas forced-air furnace to an air-to-air heat pump or a ground-source heat pump-be sure to ask the contractors to run cost comparisons for the fuels and energy sources available in your area.

In addition, make sure the contractor properly sizes the new heating equipment for your home, using a computer program or calculations based on the Air Conditioning Contractors of America Manual J. This is especially important if you've made recent energy-saving improvements such as sealing air leaks or adding insulation, which may allow you to choose a smaller unit than you presently own. An oversized system (the installation of which was a common practice in poorly weatherized and insulated homes for many years) will cost more initially-and then will waste heating dollars by running in short, inefficient cycles that won't be able to evenly heat all the rooms in your house.

Then consider the cost to purchase and the cost to operate. For example, compare a new, super-efficient forced-air furnace that costs $1,200 installed with a no-frills, low-efficiency furnace that costs $750 installed. Because of its reduced energy usage-and the resulting lower utility bills-the annual operating expense for the more efficient unit might be $400, while the basic unit might run $550. The difference in initial cost, $450, would be paid back during just three years by choosing the more efficient system-and, of course, the savings would continue to accrue for many years to come. Also ask the contractor for projected repair and maintenance expenses to factor into your decision-making process.

Sidebar

The material in this article was adapted from Home Heating and Cooling, a book published by the Iowa Energy Center. Besides offering more details on the topics discussed here, this publication also covers energy-saving home improvement projects that may be eligible for rebates from local utility companies; low-income assistance and grant programs; special financing opportunities from banks, credit unions and other lending institutions; state incentives; and federal income tax credits.

To get a free copy of this book:

• Call your utility company to see if you can stop by the office and
  pick up a copy;
  
• Download a PDF copy at the Iowa Energy Center Web site: www.energy.iastate.edu/homeseries/;
  
• Request a copy by e-mailing the Iowa Energy Center at
  iec@energy.iastate.edu; or
  
• Call the Iowa Energy Center at 515-294-8819 to ask for a copy by mail.

[Download book cover image: jpg, pdf]

Contact: Amy Myers, Iowa Energy Center, (515) 294-4391, myers@energy.iastate.edu

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