Salem’s Leading Heating Service
Sandwiched in between ocean beaches about an hour to the west and the Cascade Mountains about an hour to the east, Salem sits beside the Willamette River in the heart of the Willamette Valley. It’s beautiful, busy, and cold in the winters. As part of the local community, Loren’s Heating and Air, a Carrier® Factory Authorized Dealer, strives to do our part to keep Salem’s residents and business owners safe, warm, and comfortable in their own homes and businesses. Proud of our role as Salem’s leading HVAC installer, we are committed to the provision of quality service delivered by highly experienced and fully trained heating technicians who have the knowledge and expertise needed to install Carrier® units.
Looking at Furnace Efficiency
The efficiency of your furnace is a critical factor when looking at your monthly energy bills, your family’s comfort level, and whether or not you should consider replacing your existing model. Less-efficient furnaces lead to higher monthly expenditures for your utilities, creating the possibility that the energy miser in your home is going to continually keep the thermostat lower than some family members would like in order to minimize the cost of heating the home.
With an efficient furnace, you don’t need to worry about replacing it to stay warm, because it is already delivering high performance. How do you know how efficient your HVAC unit actually is? You can guess, based upon your energy bills and your level of comfort or you can take a look at your unit’s AFUE rating.
Understanding Furnace Efficiency
The AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency) rating system is in place to assist homeowners in identifying how well their furnaces convert the fuel they consume into heat. The Federal Trade Commission requires furnace manufacturers to include this rating on their products. While the AFUE rating might sound too technical to understand, it is really quite simple.
The AFUE rating system can be broken down as follows:
- Poor rating offering low efficiency: 77% and below
- Good rating and mid-range efficiency: 78% to 90%
- Excellent rating and high efficiency: 91% and up
The Department of Energy provides minimum AFUE requirements for all newly manufactured furnaces. This listing is broken down according to whether or not the furnace is weatherized (in-home versus in-garage). It is also divided into categories according to the type of fuel that is used to power the furnace oil, gas, and electricity.
Considering Furnace Replacement
Keeping AFUE ratings in mind, you then have to wonder whether or not your existing furnace is performing with efficiency. Fortunately, you can call us to come out and assess your furnace’s performance for you and provide you with services for heating installation Salem locals depend on. A thorough maintenance and service checkup will reveal just how well your equipment has been performing up until now.
Alternatively, you can consider a few other factors that will indicate that it is time, and probably past the time, when you should call us to install a new furnace for you.
These factors include:
- The age of your unit, particularly if it is ten years old or more
- How frequently you have had your unit serviced with a system checkup
- Poor performance
- Uneven air flow and heating
- The existence of noises and/or odors
- Extremely high energy bills
- Numerous calls to have your unit serviced or repaired
Our heating technicians are always ready to assist you with answers to any questions that you might have. We can make suggestions on which Carrier® furnace might make a good addition to your home. Our company carries numerous units, including gas and oil models offering high efficiency. To learn more, contact us today for furnace service, Salem Oregon residents!
Furnace Maintenance in Salem, OR
Furnace maintenance is very important when it comes to prolonging the life of your furnace or heating system. Maintenance includes having your system cleaned and checked for any possible parts that could use replacement or be causing your system to not be running properly. We offer heating maintenance plans for our Salem customers and always make sure to serve their unit once in the fall time and once in the springtime. We recommend having your furnace maintenance before you turn it on. This allows us to check the unit to make sure everything will be functioning properly, all winter long. If you call us for a maintenance agreement we will be more than happy to get you added to the schedule right away.
Which Furnace Fuel Type to Buy?
The most common fuel types for furnaces include oil and gas. In general, a gas furnace is going to deliver better performance (due to above average AFUE ratings). As a result, a gas furnace is going to be less expensive to operate. Gas furnaces generally require less maintenance and operate more quietly than oil units.
In order to ensure that your furnace keeps your home comfortably heated without creating excessive monthly expenditures, you should determine what size furnace you need. If you need assistance or simply want to validate your decision, the team at Loren’s Heating and Air can assist you with this determination. In general, you need to take into consideration three factors: the number of floors in your home, the square footage of your home, and the amount of insulation that is currently in place.
Carrier® Furnaces
The Carrier ® Company dates back to the early 1900s, when the founder of the company created the air conditioning unit. Since then, the company has developed a global presence selling a wide variety of residential, commercial, and industrial furnaces in addition to air conditioning units and heat pumps. Their Infinity Series, Comfort Series, and Performance Series deliver AFUE ratings of 95% or more, delivering the kind of high efficiency that heats homes affordably.
Contact Us
The team at Loren’s Heating and Air is standing by, ready to assist you with your needs for maintenance, installation, and heater repair in Salem – contact us today! Not looking for heating service? We also offer cooling services!
Heating Blogs
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- How Do I Conserve Heat During the Winter?
