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AFUE ?? WHAT, WHY and HOW
If you are shopping for a new Gas Furnace, you will find a common thread among almost all of the manufacturers. All Gas Furnaces made and or distributed in U.S. are given an AFUE rating.
What is AFUE? AFUE Stands for Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency. The AFUE number represents how efficiently a furnace converts fuel to energy and is the standard by which U.S. furnaces are rated. The higher the AFUE percentage, the more energy-efficient or fuel-efficient the furnace. The U.S. government’s established minimum AFUE rating for a furnace is 78 percent. This is why you will see most Gas Furnaces starting at 80%.
Why? Because we need a standard that every manufacture has to adhere to. This keeps down confusion and gives us a solid benchmark to make well reasoned decisions.
How? If you have been comparing Gas Furnaces you have probably found the following: There are three groups of standard Gas Furnaces, that appear to be separated by AFUE. The first group falls into the 80% group. The second comes up as the 90%+ group, and finally the third, 95% group. These three groups are achieved with specific designs that separate each.
The 80% group consists of a combination of primary heat exchangers and burner assemblies. The 80% group will normally be vented using metal vent pipe. The 80% basically means that 80% of every $1.00 of fuel will be used to create heat in your home. The other 20% will be lost out the chimney.
The 90%+ group will normally range in AFUE between 90% - 93%. This group employees the same type of burner and primary heat exchanger as the 80% group, but also incorporates a secondary heat exchanger that takes the heat that is escaping out the vent or chimney and gives this heat a second pass that extracts additional energy before finally letting the last 7%-10% out through the chimney.
The 95% group includes all furnaces that rate 95% or higher.
The highest current AFUE manufactured Gas Furnaces rate below 97%. The additional percentage from 90%+ up to the 95% range is gained by incorporating the 90%+ primary & secondary heat exchanger system with a combination of variable speed fan drives and two stage gas valve technology. Both the 90%+ and 95% groups will normally be vented using PVC pipe, as the exhaust gases are much cooler then the 80% group
Make Your Next Home Improvement Project a Whirlpool Project
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80% Gas Furnaces |
Upflow/Horizontal
- Whirlpool WFA Series 80% Gas Furnace - Upflow 50,000 BTU, 3 Ton
- Whirlpool WFA Series 80% Gas Furnace - Upflow 75,000 BTU, 3 Ton
- Whirlpool WFA Series 80% Gas Furnace Upflow 100,000 BTU 3.5 Ton
- Whirlpool WFA Series 80% Gas Furnace - Upflow 75,000 BTU, 4 Ton
- Whirlpool WFA Series 80% Gas Furnace - Upflow 100,000 BTU, 5 Ton
- Whirlpool WFA Series 80% Gas Furnace - Upflow 125,000 BTU, 5 Ton
- Whirlpool WFA Series 80% Gas Furnace - Upflow 150,000 BTU, 5 Ton
Down/Horizontal
- Whirlpool WFA 80% Gas Furnace - Counterflow 50,000 BTU, 3 Ton
- Whirlpool WFA 80% Gas Furnace - Counterflow 75,000 BTU, 3 Ton
- Whirlpool WFA 80% Gas Furnace - Counterflow 100,000 BTU, 3.5 Ton
- Whirlpool WFA 80% Gas Furnace - Counterflow 100,000 BTU, 5 Ton
- Whirlpool WFA 80% Gas Furnace - Counterflow 125,000 BTU, 5 Ton
- Whirlpool WFA 80% Gas Furnace - Counterflow 150,000 BTU, 5 Ton
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93% Gas Furnaces |
Upflow/Horizontal
- Whirlpool Gold Series 93% Gas Furnace - Up/Horz 45,000BTU, 3 Ton
- Whirlpool Gold Series 93% Gas Furnace - Up/Horz 67,000BTU, 3 Ton
- Whirlpool Gold Series 93% Gas Furnace - Up/Horz 67,000BTU, 4 Ton
- Whirlpool Gold Series 93% Gas Furnace - Up/Horz 90,000BTU, 4 Ton
- Whirlpool Gold Series 93% Gas Furnace - Up/Horz 90,000BTU, 5 Ton
- Whirlpool Gold Series 93% Gas Furnace - Up/Horz 112,000BTU 5 Ton
Counter Flow
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95% Gas Furnaces |
Upflow/Horizontal
Counter Flow
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Enjoy Every Degree of Comfort With Whirlpool
Whirlpool Brand and or it’s family of products have been a part of our lives for over 90 years. When choosing a new home comfort system, you can be assured that Whirlpool is at the top of the class.
Whirlpool Brand Heating & Cooling Systems are designed and built with environmental and economic features and benefits that give you peace of mind as well as total comfort. It has been an ongoing dedication to provide homeowners great quality products that help make their lives better and more comfortable for nearly a century.
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GAS FURNACES, SO MANY CHOICES.
When shopping for a new Gas Furnace, the choices can have you crossing your eyes. It really is not as complicated as it is looks. Let’s see if we can explain the differences and help you make a decision.
Gas Furnaces are all basically the same technology with different efficiency ranges and physical system configuration changes. Those are pretty big words but let’s simplify.
All Gas Furnaces have a heat exchanger. The heat exchanger is the part of the furnace that converts burning flame to usable heat. All Gas Furnaces have a set of burners and an ignition system. The ignition system ignites the gas entering and the burners and distribute the burning gas to each of the chambers of the heat exchanger.
Finally, all modern Gas Furnaces have a blower system. This blower takes the heat that is created from the heat exchanger, from the burning gas from the burners, that were ignited by the ignition system and distributes that heat throughout your home. Simple huh?
Why so many choices? The two basic things that create the need for multiple furnaces, is efficiency and configuration. Modern Gas Furnaces range in efficiency from 80% to 96% efficient. The technology and manufacturing that goes into the higher efficiency units is a bit more costly and therefore can be more expensive at the time of purchase. But, keep in mind that higher efficiency equals lower operating costs. Therefore, the money saved at time of purchase between a standard efficiency Gas Furnace and a high efficiency Gas Furnace may be a smaller issue then the money saved in operating efficiency over time.
Here is an example: The efficiency difference between an 80% furnace and a 95% furnace is almost 16%. So, if you’re annual operating cost of an 80% system is $1,500, (6 months @ $250/month) then a 95% efficient Gas Furnace would have an operating cost over the same time period of $1,260. And, as the price difference between these two furnaces can be as much as $1,200, the higher efficiency 95% unit would cover the additional cost in the first 5 years.
Since modern Gas Furnaces are built to last at least 15 years, the overall savings could amount to as much as $3,600 (and that is using current gas prices, which we know will only go higher over time, increasing the rate of savings).
Now, what about those configurations? Well, configuration is a matter of fact. Because of certain construction layouts in homes, the need for different configurations (the way the furnace lays and distributes it’s heat) are necessary.
There are three basic configurations. Upflow, Downflow and Horizontal. These configurations cause there to be in many cases three different models of the same rated furnace, causing there to be what looks like many choices.
All you need to decide, are these three things:
- What direction will my system flow? Up/Down/ Horizontal
- What amount of heat or BTU’s will I need? Determined by the size and insulation of your home.
- What efficiency do I want? 80% / 93% / 95%
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