Gas Furnace Replacement & Installation In Illinois
A standard gas-fired furnace. This type of furnace must vent through a chimney and uses room air to aid combustion.
A gas furnace is designed to heat air and distribute it throughout the house through a ductwork system.
Supply ducts deliver the heated air to different rooms in the house. Return ducts bring cooler air back to the furnace to be reheated.
A gas furnace that's more than 10 years old can be functioning perfectly but only working at 65% efficiency. Newer gas furnaces are available that operate above 90% efficiency.
Furnaces like this can operate reliably for years, but even when they're operating perfectly, they probably won't be more than around 80% efficient at turning fuel into heat for your home.
Like furnaces that burn oil or coal, a gas furnace is described in the following ways:
- BTU output.The heat output of a furnace is listed in thousands of btus (80,000btu, for example) and denotes the amount of heat energy the furnace can produce.
- Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency. A standard measure of efficiency for furnaces, AFUE tells you the percentage of input energy the furnace can convert to output energy for warming your home.
- Configuration. A "high-boy" furnace is a tall model with the blower located under the heat exchanger. A "low-boy" furnace has the blower in back of the heat exchanger, making it shorter.
- Combustion. Both "sealed combustion" and "atmospheric combustion" furnaces are available. Differences between the two types are discussed below.
Sealed-combustion furnaces are super-efficient
A sealed-combustion furnace is so named because the combustion chamber is sealed in order to have more control over the combustion process. The air required for combustion is piped to the combustion chamber from outside the house, through a small-diameter plastic pipe. Gasses that result from combustion are also vented outside through a plastic pipe, with assistance from a small fan. This type of furnace is also sometimes called "direct vent" because it can be vented through an exterior wall. No chimney is necessary.
Sealed-combustion furnaces are super-efficient, earning AFUE ratings of 90% or higher. Nearly all the heat potential of the fuel is extracted, making flue gasses cool enough to be passed through a plastic exhaust pipe. A small amount of water results during the heat condensing cycle, and this condensate is typically piped to a floor drain.
A sealed-combustion gas furnace is a smart choice if you are thinking about replacing an old furnace. In addition to cutting your gas bill, this type of furnace will be safer to operate because there's little danger of backdrafting (which can pull hazardous combustion gasses into your living space).
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