An appliance’s heating system efficiency rating is a measure of how well it turns its fuel into the heat used to keep your water hot and your home warm as opposed to how much heat it squanders. If the number is high, that means the appliance is more efficient. There are even different rating systems for different types of appliances. All these rules have been set down by the Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute, or AHRI.
Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency
The HVAC industry uses this type of rating for furnaces and boilers, whether they’re powered by gas, propane or oil. It’s abbreviated as AFUE. If your furnace or boiler has a rating of 80 percent or higher, it’s sort of baseline when it comes to efficiency. You’ll find ratings like this in older homes where the heating system hasn’t been upgraded in a while.
Ratings of 87 to 90 percent are usually found in boilers that use propane and non-condensing oil. A rating between 90 and 98 percent is fantastically good and is found with really high-tech boilers. A rating like this means that between 90 and 98 percent of the heat is used for your needs while just 10 to 2 percent escapes.
Coefficient of Performance
This rating measures how efficient an electric heat pump is at a certain outdoor temperature. By the way, heat pumps operate at more than 100 percent efficiency. This is because they act more like reverse air conditioners. They use evaporators, condensers, and compressors, which allows them to pull in heat from the air and move it around. Because the COP deals with electrical appliances, it’s measured as watt/watt.
Heating Seasonal Performance Factor 2
Also called HSPF2, this rating is also used to measure the efficiency of an electric heat pump. Its “2” designation means that it’s an improvement over the traditional HSPF formula. HSPF2 works by taking all the heat the electric heat pump has put out over the winter and dividing it by how much electricity it uses. As with other ratings, the higher the number, the more efficient the heat pump is. A heat pump needs to have a rating of at least 7.5 by law.
Other Ratings To Know
Other ratings to keep in mind are the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio, or SEER, and the Energy Efficiency Ratio, or EER. These ratings actually deal more with the efficiency of your air conditioner, but as with the others, the higher the number, the more efficient the system is. There’s also an Integrated Energy Efficiency Ratio, or IEER, but this is used for those huge AC compressors on top of commercial buildings.
Your HVAC system’s efficiency rating goes a long way in determining your monthly energy bill. Ask your HVAC tech to learn more about it. When you need heating services in Orlando, FL, contact Frank Gay.
