Buying a New Heating System? Consider These Factors
If your home’s furnace or heat pump has been diligently doing its job keeping your family comfortable for 15 years or more, that’s reason to be satisfied.
However, nothing lasts forever, and every HVAC system eventually gives out. If your home has an older heating system, there’s no better time than now to start considering your options for replacement. A well-considered decision will pay dividends in comfort and energy costs for many years into the future.
Rule #1: Work with someone you trust
The first rule when planning to replace any heating or cooling system is to work with a Cincinnati HVAC company you feel you can trust. That expertise and know-how will be essential when you’re choosing a new system.
Right off the bat, too, you’ll need to decide which sort of system you’d like to replace your old equipment. The two most popular options are:
- a natural-gas combustion furnace
- an electric air-source heat pump
Other options are also available, including
- the ductless mini-split,
- radiant heating,
- electric baseboard heating,
- geothermal heat pump and
- furnaces that burn propane or fuel oil, among other options.
The decision on what type of system to go with likely will revolve around what system you’ve used before. If you’re replacing a natural gas furnace, you already have gas lines and exhaust pipes in place.
But if you don’t have that infrastructure, the cost of installing a new furnace will be higher.
Gas vs. heat pumps
While gas heating isn’t nearly as efficient as heating with a heat pump (especially when the outside temperatures are not extremely cold), the current high cost of natural gas makes this traditional option competitive with heat-pump heating.
A heat pump has the advantage of providing both heating and cooling, which offers less equipment cluttering your basement or utility room, easier service and cheaper Cincinnati heater installation.
An electric heat pump also doesn’t pose the safety risks of a combustion furnace, including the potential for fire or a carbon monoxide leak.
On the other hand, a heat pump may need back-up heating during excessively cold weather, which can be expensive.
Consider energy efficiency
When showing you options for replacing your old heating system, the top Cincinnati HVAC contractors will discuss energy efficiency with you. Generally speaking, the better the efficiency of a heating or cooling system, the higher its initial cost.
- In this context, energy efficiency just means how much energy is required to create the heat. With gas heating, the closer to 100 percent efficiency a furnace can achieve, the better.
- An electric heat pump, on the other hand, can deliver several times more heat energy than the electricity that goes into the system.
- So, you’ll want to select the highest available energy efficiency in whatever type of system you choose, as long as you can afford it.
- With a high-efficiency system, your monthly savings on utility bills should more than pay for the extra upfront cost for the better system.
Other considerations include
- what sort of advanced features you’d like with your new heating system, and
- whether you’d like to consider a whole-house humidity-control or air-purifier system for your Cincinnati home that works with your new central HVAC system.