If you were to ask the average homeowner what the most efficient type of furnace is, there’s a good chance they’d tell you that gas furnaces are the efficiency champ. That’s the prevailing wisdom and a big part of why 47% of all Canadian homes, including those in Belleville, rely on natural gas furnaces for heat. However, you may be shocked to find out that gas furnaces aren’t the most efficient type of furnace on the market. That distinction goes to electric furnaces. So, why don’t homeowners know that? Why aren’t electric furnaces the dominant heat source for homes? To answer that, here’s an overview of the efficiency of gas and electric furnaces and how to choose the right one for your home.
All About Gas Furnace Efficiency
To understand how efficient a gas furnace is, you must first understand how the HVAC industry measures its efficiency. That means understanding AFUE ratings. An AFUE rating, or an annualized fuel utilization efficiency rating, tells you how much of the fuel a furnace consumes gets converted into usable heat for your home. Fortunately, it’s simple enough to understand.
An AFUE rating converts directly into a percentage. So, if you see a furnace with an AFUE rating of 88, that means it will convert 88% of its fuel into usable heat. The other 12% ends up wasted as heat escapes up your chimney or through incomplete combustion. Here in Canada, any furnace you’ll find for sale that doesn’t have an integrated cooling component must have an AFUE rating of 95 or higher.
More expensive gas furnaces come with AFUE ratings as high as 98.5. That’s extremely efficient as far as heating systems go. However, electric furnaces still provide more efficient heating than their gas-powered counterparts.
All About Electric Furnace Efficiency
Electric furnaces have one massive advantage over gas furnaces that translates into higher efficiency. Since electric furnaces don’t need a chimney, they’re incapable of wasting fuel the way a gas furnace would. That difference means that electric furnaces are, by definition, 100% efficient.
To understand why, consider how electric furnaces operate. For that, look no further than the toaster in your kitchen or the hair dryer in your bathroom. They generate heat the same way an electric furnace does. The process relies on a principle known as electric resistance heating. In an electric resistance heater, electrical current passes through metal heating elements designed to impede the flow of electricity. That resistance converts electrical energy into heat energy. It’s why the heating elements in your toaster glow red when you’re using it.
In an electric furnace, a blower motor draws in air from around your home, just as in a gas-powered system. That air passes across the heating elements, warming up as it flows through. Then, the now-heated air gets distributed around your home where you need it.
Efficiency Losses Beyond Your Furnace
In an electric furnace, the only wasted energy is the electricity used to power the blower fan. However, gas furnaces feature the same losses, so there’s no difference between the two system types there. The same thing goes for the ductwork inside your home’s walls.
Whether you’re using an electric furnace or a gas-powered one, there will always be energy losses associated with your home’s ductwork. These can be in the form of small air leaks that allow heated air to escape into your walls, where it goes to waste. Or, it can happen as the ductwork passes through unheated parts of your home, causing heat loss through convection or radiation.
According to experts, most homes with forced-air heating systems lose between 25% and 40% of the heat generated by their furnaces in this way. In truth, it’s fair to say that upgrading the insulation on your home’s ductwork and having it resealed is a much better way to improve your home’s heating efficiency than changing which type of furnace you own. It’s also worth noting that efficiency alone isn’t the only factor that influences homeowners’ furnace purchasing decisions.
Efficiency Versus Operating Costs
The real reason that most homeowners don’t realize that electric furnaces operate more efficiently than gas-powered ones is energy costs. Put simply, electricity costs are far higher and more volatile than natural gas costs. The difference in costs is so vast that even an older natural gas furnace with a poor AFUE will still cost much less to heat your home than an electric furnace in most cases.
The math on the difference is pretty clear. Here in Belleville, the average homeowner pays approximately 13¢ per kilowatt-hour of electricity. If you own an electric furnace, that translates into an operating cost of roughly $55 per BTU of operating costs. That’s despite the perfect efficiency of electric furnaces.
By contrast, based on the average cost of natural gas here in Belleville, an average gas furnace will only cost approximately $21.50 per BTU to run. That’s less than half of the cost of an electric furnace! And since people equate lower operating costs with greater efficiency, many people assume that a gas furnace is more energy efficient than an electric furnace.
Electric furnaces tend to cost far less to maintain, as well. This is because gas furnaces are a bit more complex and suffer more wear and tear as they operate. So, over its lifetime, the cost of maintaining a gas furnace will be significantly higher than a comparable electric model. However, based on the sheer scale of the difference in operating costs between the two, it’s unlikely that an electric furnace will ever have a lower total cost of ownership lower than that of a gas-powered model, regardless of its AFUE.
Trust the Furnace Experts
Now you know everything you need to know about the difference in efficiency between electric and gas furnaces. The bottom line is that the more efficient option isn’t necessarily the cheapest option overall. However, both options have relative strengths and weaknesses, making them a better fit, respectively, in certain circumstances. No matter what kind of furnace your Belleville home has or needs, Armour Home Comfort can help. We offer complete HVAC services, including installation, repair, and maintenance. That includes offering the latest in gas and electric furnaces. We also maintain fireplaces and offer financing on approved credit to help you meet your home’s HVAC needs.
So, for furnaces and HVAC services of all kinds in Belleville, call on Armour Home Comfort today!
