How To Check If Heater is Working Efficiently

After a long day, it is always nice to come home to a house that is comfortably cool or warm. It is also nice to keep cash in your wallet by making sure that your energy bills are low. Here at Inland Empire Comfort of Riverside, California, we can help you enjoy both lower energy bills and a cozy interior home environment.

If you want to keep your bank account as cozy as your living room, it is a good idea to keep an eye on your heating system. While many households like yours have seen a rise in the costs of all utilities, the home heating network often generates the largest bills. That’s one reason why learning how to check if your heater is working efficiently is such a valuable skill.

We are happy to serve the needs of customers in Riverside County and the surrounding areas. Our licensed and insured air conditioning repair technicians in Riverside by Inland Empire Comfort offer preventative maintenance and repairs for every part of your HVAC system. We can also show you how to get the most efficiency out of it and save valuable cash.

Heater Efficiency Can Decrease with Age

Like everything else, your home or commercial heating system will lose some level of efficiency over time. Still, the furnace will usually give you various warnings of impending problems. If and when it does, you can always call on us for immediate help. Signs to keep an eye out for include:

• Hard Starting: One sign of an aging unit is a furnace that won’t start at all or takes an unusually long time to start. Several things can cause this, including a problem with the power switch, electronics, or the fuel supply network.
• Premature Shut-Offs: A furnace that shuts off prematurely may have electrical issues or fuel supply problems, but another culprit could be a residue build-up problem or leaks in the system.
• Old Components: Another common problem is aging components that can affect efficiency levels. The various parts of your heating system will age at different rates, but it only takes one faulty part to shut down the whole system. In situations like this, a new heater is likely the solution to the problem.

Knowing Your Heater Efficiency Ratings Pays Off

It would be great if modern furnaces had 100% efficiency ratings, but they don’t. Such a rating would mean that a furnace was getting all of the available energy from the fuel. In practice, furnaces extract only a fraction of the available energy from the fuels that they operate on.

That said, the more energy output per unit that a furnace can manage, the more heat it will produce.

A good measure of the relationship between fuel use and efficiency is the Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE). The Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency rating compares the amount of energy that a heater uses over a year with its annual output of heat. The resulting number rates the efficiency of furnaces, and it is usually clearly printed somewhere on the outside casing of heating units.

Keep in mind that higher-end furnaces often have AFUE ratings in the 90s, making them the most efficient models.

The higher the AFUE number of the unit is, the more energy efficient it should be. This is important because the more efficient your heater is, the less money you will need to spend on gas, oil, or other heating fuels. When you shop for furnaces, you should seek out models that feature AFUE ratings of at least 80.

Keep Your Heat Pump Efficiency Levels High

For many good reasons, heat pumps are popular choices for modern homes. These devices move heat effectively from one place to another, and they may be geothermal, water-based, or air-based. They also come in hybrid models that use both a furnace and a heat pump to get the job done in a variety of temperature conditions.

Like regular furnaces, heat pumps come in various efficiency levels. Some are far more efficient than others, and manufacturers have an easy way for you to find such models.

The Heating Seasonal Performance Factor (HSPF) is an efficiency rating system that is unique to heat pumps. This rating measures annual electrical usage in watt-hours and compares it to expected annual heat output. Higher HSPF ratings equal more efficient units.

A higher HSPF rating means lower heating costs for a given space. When looking for a new heat pump system, look for units with HSPF ratings of at least 8.2.

Your Energy Bills and Heating Efficiency

Another key way to learn how to check if a heater is working is to keep track of your energy bills over time. As furnaces become less effective, they have to use excessive amounts of power to heat your home to the same temperature. Large and otherwise unexplained jumps in electricity usage may indicate a fault in the heating system.

A jump in usage can also result in a tripped breaker from overloads or a complete breaker failure. If your system has to run for longer than usual to maintain the desired temperature, this is another sign of excessive energy usage. In addition, if your furnace is also blowing air at the wrong temperature, this represents a major sign of inefficiency.

Regular Furnace Maintenance Keeps Your Bills Lower

While keeping these tips in mind will help you identify possible inefficiencies, some things are best left to the pros. Professional preventative maintenance is key to keeping your heating system efficiency levels high. Our detailed system inspections can reveal seemingly minor issues that may have major consequences.

During these maintenance visits, technicians can check your system electronics, safety switch, ductwork, and a whole lot more.

You now know much more about how to check if your heater is working properly. If you suspect a problem, our heating repair services here at Inland Empire Comfort can solve it. Call us now at 951-336-8709 for a free consultation and quote.