Derek Cole and William Skipper explain AFUE and HSPF, the two rating systems that measure heating efficiency. Furnaces range from 80% to 98% efficient, while heat pumps are rated by SEER. Higher numbers mean lower fuel costs and better performance.
Hey, this is Derrick Cole along with William Skipper, and welcome to The Comfort Experts. And today we're talking about your heating system efficiency, and there's actually different ratings depending on different sources. So you have for your gas and your combustion, and then you have your electricity. So William, what are those measuring devices?
Well, you've got the two, and they are AFUE and HSPF. You might hear somebody on commercials, or you might hear somebody that's coming in to talk to you about a new system mention those. Basically what that is, is just It's abbreviations for the formula that they use to calculate it. Basically, AFUE is for your combustion, and it is basically what your unit— how efficient your unit uses the fuel to provide you the heat, right? You hear it range from 80% up to sometimes 98%. And what that's saying is, for every dollar that I put in gas for heat, if it's 80%, I'm getting 80 cents worth of heat out of that dollar. Every dollar that I'm using for heat, if it's 98%, I'm getting 98 cents of heat for every dollar that I put in fuel. That's your efficiency rating. Now, for a heat pump with the ASPF, what that's saying is how efficient your unit is using electricity, again, to provide the heat for your house. So you're going to get— it could range depending on the SEER rating that you got with your unit. That you bought with a heat pump. So, um, if you're looking for efficiency, the higher those numbers are, the more efficient they are.
Yes, based on a split heat pump or even a split furnace application, it's going to depend on the, you know, if it's vertical, if it's horizontal, if it's, you know, what size with what. So all those factors really are going to depend on how efficient it can be, but there is some basics especially on the furnace side of 90%, 92%, 95% efficient. Obviously, again, the higher the number, the more efficient it is and the less you're losing to outside sources or keeping the birds warm.
That's right.
In the wintertime, birds like, man, I really, I'm really enjoying this 80% furnace.
Or the less money that's coming out of your pocket.
Exactly. So for more information, go to 1HourAir.com. Carolinas.com.
Today's episode was brought to you by the Comfort Experts. See us for all your heating and air conditioning needs. For more information, visit 1houraircarolinas.com. That's 1houraircarolinas.com.
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