Your gas furnace creates heat in your house by burning a fuel source (gas in this case) and then sending the resulting heat to the rest of your house. When the gas burns it creates hot vapors which are sent into a piece of metal tubing. This metal tubing is called a heat exchanger and for good reason. The reason for the heat exchanger is to dissipate heat from the gas furnace into the air that is passed over the heat exchanger and into the rest of your house.
There are four major types of gas furnaces and the one you pick basically depends on the location of your furnace and the duct work that will accompany it.
When needing a furnace that will blow hot air through low pipes you need a counterflow gas furnace because this type takes air from the top of the furnace and shoots it out the bottom.
The highboy and low boy gas furnaces are the most common because the heat is pushed out the top to be vented in several appropriate directions from the top plane.
The less common horizontal gas furnace blows air out sideways so that it can be used in tight spaces like attics and crawl spaces.
A gas furnace can come in different models and types and as such each different model has a different level of efficiency. Open burner gas furnaces that use a standard pilot are the least efficient because of the lost heat through the smoke pipe. A condensing gas furnace is the most efficient and different because there is a condensing coil that extracts even more of the heat from the exhaust gases saving you money. While the major part of efficiency for the gas furnace lies in the burner itself, here are some pretty standard tips to help you save on your gas bill.
- o Simply lowering your thermostat by 3 to 5 degrees can save you 10 to 20% on your gas bill.
- o By lowering the amount of heat lost by upgrading the insulation in your attic and walls you can save you up to 25% on your gas bill.
- o Weather stripping around windows and doors is another big gas saver.
- o Proper maintenance of your gas furnace will insure efficient heating.
- o Along with proper maintenance come replacing the gas furnace filter. This alone can save up to 2% on your gas bill.
- o Make sure that your gas furnace is blowing the air to the right places. Leaks in the duct system can loose hot air before it gets to the desired room. Patch the gap!