Furnace Reviews and News 12/13/2009

Irving Furnace

Look for the best furnace reviews and advice on 90 percent AFUE gas furnaces from two sources: Consumer Reports, which conducts surveys of installed furnaces as well as interviews with contractors, and James Dulley, a mechanical engineer and newspaper columnist who regularly writes about home energy-use issues.

Heating and air conditioning professionals recommend a gas furnace with an annual fuel utilization efficiency rating of 90 percent or 92 percent is efficient enough for owners to receive energy conservation rebates in many states. Reviewers recommend these types of furnaces most often, even though their initial costs can be at least $1,000 more than their less efficient 80 percent AFUE counterparts (*est. installed cost $2,000 and up).

Just what is AFUE you may be asking? This is an acronym for Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency and  is the most widely used measure of a furnace’s heating efficiency. It measures the amount of heat actually delivered to a house compared to the amount of fuel that must supply the furnace.

A 90 percent furnace wastes less fuel than an 80 percent furnace, so fuel savings offsets its higher upfront cost over the unit’s lifetime. (That said, HVAC experts say the difference between an 80 percent furnace and a 90 percent furnace is greater than the difference between a 90 percent furnace and an ultra-high-efficiency 92 percent to 97 percent furnace.) According to surveys and experts’ recommendations, American Standard/Trane and Rheem/Ruud are the most reliable brands, but contractor choice is a more important consideration overall.