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Your gas bill seems kind of high considering how cold you keep the house. I used 132 therms (33% more than last year) and I keep my thermostat between 68 & 72. I have a 92% furnace.
That said, I remember that my gas bill didn't decrease all that much when I replaced a 22 year old system several years ago. My electric bill in the summer dropped substantially but I also put in new windows that same year.
Anyhow, maybe ask your HVAC company to come check over the system and make sure everything is running as it should.
I've just emailed my HVAC guy and attached the chart I included here. The system I got is considered a mid-range standard system, not a "low efficiency" system. Consider that the one in place before was even lower efficiency (maybe 60% to 70%?).
80% is not efficient by today's standards. For every $100 in gas you buy $20 is wasted. I would imagine payback for a 92% -95% furnace would have been less than 5 years and also be a selling point if you sold the house. A 80% furnace would be a negative to most home buyers.
80% is not efficient by today's standards. For every $100 in gas you buy $20 is wasted. I would imagine payback for a 92% -95% furnace would have been less than 5 years and also be a selling point if you sold the house. A 80% furnace would be a negative to most home buyers.
I'm hoping that an HVAC guy/gal will chime in on this. I have two high efficiency furnaces. The people that service my equipment stated that they would not have recommended H.E. for my upstairs system. I forgot the reason why. My neighbors had their two systems updated this summer and I'm pretty sure that they went with a non HE upstairs as well.
Do you have at least 12 inches of insulation in your attic?
But the comparison is really year over year, between different equipment and widely divergent temperatures.
More insulation and tightening up a 25 year old home can always offer more comfort, but won't explain the different usage.
Basically, it was a MUCH colder heating period this year over last.
Well I just spoke with my HVAC guy (who Mike J knows as well).
First of all, it is incorrect that in an 80% efficient furnace "$20 out of every $100 of gas purchased is thrown away" (as Carlos claimed in a post above). According to my HVAC expert, that is simply not true.
And, more importantly, a 90% efficiency combo gas pack/electric unit doesn't exist in the brand (Trane) and the only way to get a 90% efficiency solution for my downstairs, which does most of the heavy-lifting when it comes to heating my 2 story home, would be to engineer a split system, which would have required some significant additional costs for the labor to make that switch, along with higher equipment costs.
To do the upstairs with a 90% would have also required re-engineering, including roof work to convert the existing metal flue pipework to PVC, and some other construction.
It would have added probably $4K - $5K additional cost to the project.
However, I will be getting a service call to check to make sure there isn't fast cycling or any kind of other problem (like a leak) that is causing increased usage of gas, relative to the colder temps.
80% efficient means the furnace turns 80% of the fuel (gas) into heat, 20% is wasted. I am starting to think you may a good decision because apparently the 80% furnaces are being phased out. The new standard will be 90%.
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