First Choice Heating & Cooling Blog: Posts Tagged ‘Heating System Installation’

Pros and Cons of Electric Furnaces vs. Gas Furnaces

Monday, September 11th, 2023

You have so many options available when it comes to heating your home. While many homes rely on gas furnaces, they’re not necessarily the top choice anymore. Other HVAC machines are constantly improving and contending with combustion-based heating, like the electric furnace.

You likely have a ton of questions about getting an electric furnace in Fenton, so today we’re going to pit it against the age-old gas-powered furnace and try to answer the question: which one is better?

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What to Look for in Professional Heating Contractors

Monday, January 30th, 2023
technician-working-on-air-conditioner

You just moved into your new home, you have a laundry list of services that need to be done to get it in top shape, and you’re feeling overwhelmed. We’ve all been there.

When it comes time to choose your heating and cooling contractors to help you manage your furnace, air conditioner, and indoor air quality, you want the best of the best (and you shouldn’t settle for less).

Let’s go through the list of what you deserve from heating contractors in Highland and how they should help you take care of your home.

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What You Didn’t Know About the Efficiency of Electric Furnaces

Monday, September 26th, 2022

money-saving-chimneyEfficiency. It’s one of the big buzzwords of the 21st century. When people shop for home appliances, they look for efficient devices that can lower energy demands and help the environment. Efficiency ratings can create confusion for homeowners, however, and one good example is with furnaces. 

Furnaces are the most common type of heating system found in residential buildings, and they account for an enormous amount of either natural gas or electricity consumption during a year. The right high-efficiency furnace can make a huge difference in utility bills. Unfortunately, when it comes to electric furnace efficiency, people unfamiliar with how efficiency ratings work can make assumptions about how much energy the furnace could potentially save. We’ll clear up this misunderstanding to help you look for the right electric furnace for your household.

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Let’s Talk Boilers as a New Heating Installation

Monday, December 6th, 2021

boiler-residentialWhen you’re considering getting a new heating system for your home, you’ll probably be looking into a forced-air heater of some kind: an electric furnace, a gas furnace, a heat pump. These heaters all raise the temperature of the air and then send that air through ductwork to the rooms. If your home already has ductwork, then you’ll almost certainly will be looking into a forced-air heater.

The other major option is a boiler. Boilers don’t use ducts, instead sending heated water to terminal points (often baseboard heaters or in-floor elements, although some use traditional radiators) to radiate heat indoors. You may be interested in a boiler system if you are building a new home or doing major renovations on one. 

So let’s talk about getting a boiler for a home, if that’s a possibility. Boilers have several tremendous benefits that make them worth considering if you’re in a situation where they’re a viable choice.

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Does a High-Efficiency Furnace Guarantee I’ll Save Money?

Monday, February 15th, 2021

money-savings-seesawHigh efficiency is a common buzzword for many products today. Everyone wants high-efficiency appliances, because it helps lower energy use and contributes to the environment. 

However, we recommend any consumer be cautious when it comes to promises they hear about how much a high-efficiency appliance will save them. The important word to watch out for is will. Because to get straight to the question in the title, getting an appliance such as a high-efficiency furnace installed is not a guarantee of money savings. 

Looking into high-efficiency units is a good way to plan for energy savings, and we recommend customers investigate units with high AFUE ratings (more about this in a moment). But there are other factors to consider when it comes to a new furnace installation, and just focusing on efficiency can lead to wasting energy.

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Is a Ductless System Effective for Heating?

Monday, January 4th, 2021

ductless-mini-split-systemYou’re considering making a change to how you heat and cool your home: a ductless mini split system. Maybe this is a full-house change, plans for a new house, or you only want to install ductless to target a certain area that needs additional comfort assistance. Whatever the reason for considering a ductless installation, you still have a reservation about how well a ductless system works for heating.

We’ll explain a bit about how ductless systems operate to see how well one can provide you with heat.

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Electric vs. Gas Furnace Efficiency—There’s a Trick to It

Monday, January 6th, 2020

money-saving-chimneyAre you looking to have a new heating system installed in your house? If you are, one of the most important bits of information you’ll want to find out about potential models is their efficiency. A high-efficiency furnace uses less energy to provide more heat, and therefore costs less to run.

Or at least, that’s what it seems to mean.

The truth is a bit more complicated. Efficiency is a rating of the heating output of a furnace compared to the amount of energy it uses. This doesn’t necessarily mean that a furnace with a higher efficiency rating will automatically cost less to run. A good example of this is the difference in the efficiency ratings of gas furnaces and electric furnaces.

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Changing to a Heat Pump—What Do You Need to Know?

Monday, April 15th, 2019

question-mark-badgeBetween the winter chill and the summer roast is the ideal time to have a new HVAC system installed. If you’ve suspected that your current heater and air conditioner are coming near the end of their usefulness, when air conditioning and heating repair in Highland, MI are no longer cost-effective, then talk to our HVAC installation pros. We’ll be glad to make your home happy with an excellent new AC and heater …

… or maybe we only need to install one system! A heat pump takes care of the heating and cooling needs for your house in a single installation. We recommend looking into a heat pump for your home if you plan to upgrade both your heater and AC this spring. Here are a few things you should know about making this change.

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What’s This “Tonnage” Mean for a New Furnace?

Monday, February 4th, 2019

When the time arrives for a new installation of a furnace in Brighton, MI for your house, you’ll have to navigate plenty of numbers and stats aside from the price of the unit. For example, there’s the AFUE rating, which is how the energy efficiency of a furnace is rated. The higher the percentage, the more efficiently it uses fuel.

One number you’ll hear often is the tonnage of the new system. It’s vital that your furnace has the proper tonnage for your home. What does this actually mean, and how do you find the right tonnage?

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Can an Electric Furnace Handle My Heating Needs?

Monday, December 11th, 2017

cold-sweater-manWhen it’s time to have a heating system installed in your house, whether it’s a replacement system or the first system for a new home, you have more choices than ever before. Furnaces are by far the most popular type of residential heating system—but what type of furnace is right for your house?

The furnace debate often comes down to a duel between the electric furnace and the gas furnace. Gas furnaces create immense heat output. Can an electric furnace compete? Will one be enough to keep your family warm over the winter?

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