Energy Efficient Heating Systems
Fast Facts
- Heating and cooling ("space conditioning") account for 50 to
70% of the energy used in the average American home.
- Older forced-air and hot water boiler heating systems had
efficiencies in the range of 56% to 70%.
- Modern heating systems can achieve efficiencies as high as
97%, converting nearly all the fuel to useful heat for the home.
- Upgrading your furnace or boiler from 56% to 90% efficiency in
an average cold-climate house will save 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide
emissions each year if you heat with gas, or 2.5 tons if you heat
with oil.
- Old coal burners that were switched over to oil or gas are
prime candidates for replacement, as well as gas furnaces with
pilot lights rather than electronic ignitions.
- By turning back your thermostat 10-15 degrees for 8 hours at
night, you can save about 5-15% a year on heating costs –
essentially a savings of about 1 % per degree if the setback
period is 8 hours long.
- Fireplaces should not be thought of as a heating device.
Although fireplaces will heat the immediately surrounding area,
they will also draw cold air in through the rest of your house and
draw much of the heat in your house up the chimney.
What can I do to save energy in my home?
- Set your thermostat as low as is comfortable, setting back the
temperature at night if possible. Keep the temperature fairly
constant, as frequent changes will use more energy.
- Install an automatic, programmable thermostat to adjust the
temperature setting automatically for you.
- While setting back thermostats at night reduces energy
consumption in oil or gas furnaces, it is not recommended for heat
pumps with a two-stage thermostat.
- Clean or replace furnace filters once a month or as needed.
- Oil-fired boilers should be professionally cleaned and tuned
once a year. Gas-fired equipment needs to be checked every other
year.
- Clean warm-air registers, baseboard heaters, and radiators as
needed. Make sure furniture, carpeting, or drapes do not block
them.
- Keep draperies and shades on south-facing windows open during
the heating season to allow sunlight to enter your home; close
them at night to reduce the chill you may feel from cold windows.
- Use zone heating: close the door to an unoccupied room or area
that is isolated from the rest of the house and turn down the
thermostat or turn off the heat for that room or area. Ask your
local heating and cooling contractor about retrofitting your home
to zone heating and cooling.
- Use kitchen, bath, and other ventilating fans wisely. Turn
these fans off as soon as they are no longer needed. In about 1
hour, these fans can pull out a house-full of warmed or cooled
air.
- Check your ducts for air leaks. First look for sections that
should be joined but have separated and then look for obvious
holes. Consult with a professional about repairing duct leaks.
Safe duct repairs require a licensed heating, ventilating, and
air-conditioning contractor.
- If your furnace or boiler is old, worn out, inefficient, or
significantly oversized, the simplest solution is to replace it
with a modern high-efficiency model.
- When shopping for high-efficiency furnaces and boilers, look
for dependability, and look for the ENERGY
STAR® label.
- Before buying your new furnace or boiler, first make every
effort to improve the energy efficiency of your home, then have a
heating contractor run a heat-loss calculation to size your new
furnace.
- When buying gas and oil systems, specify sealed combustion.
Sealed-combustion furnaces bring outside air directly into the
burner and exhaust flue gases directly to the outside, without the
need for a draft hood or damper. They generally burn more
efficiently and pose no risk of introducing dangerous combustion
gases into your house.
- In areas where wood is readily available, wood-burning stoves
are a possible alternative or supplement to furnaces.
Additional
Sources of Information
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