If you follow the news closely, you may have heard about New York State enacting a bans on natural gas hookups for new construction. The point of the bans is to reduce natural gas usage gradually. If your home relies on a natural gas furnace for heat, you need to start evaluating your furnace replacement options.
Although you don’t need to do anything right now, odds are you will whenever your existing furnace reaches the end of its life. As a leading heating solution provider in Ronkonkoma, NY, we’re already fielding questions from homeowners on the topic. One of the most frequent questions we hear is whether electric furnaces are a viable replacement for gas models.
Here’s everything you need to know.
What Is an Electric Furnace?
If you’ve never seen an electric furnace in operation, you’re not alone. You’d be hard-pressed to find a home with one anywhere in Ronkonkoma. There’s a reason for that, which we’ll discuss shortly. In any case, an electric furnace is not all that different from a gas model, but it relies on a high-wattage electric resistance heater in place of a gas burner. If you’ve ever used a small space heater, you’ve probably seen one in action. Electric furnaces are a popular heating option in warm-weather climates, where temperatures rarely, if ever, drop below freezing.
Is an Electric Furnace Viable in Ronkonkoma?
Although it’s possible to install an electric furnace in a home here in the Northeast, it’s not a wise idea. The reason is simple: electric furnaces are expensive to operate. However, the reason isn’t that they’re inefficient. On the contrary, all electric furnaces operate at 100% efficiency. That means all the electricity they consume gets turned into usable heat for your home. While that may sound great, the devil’s in the details.
To understand the fundamental operating cost problem associated with electric furnaces, you must first understand their gas counterparts. On average, a gas furnace operating in this area achieves approximately 80% efficiency. While that may sound inferior to an electric furnace, it isn’t when you consider energy costs. As you likely already know, natural gas is one of the cheapest fuel sources there is. Meanwhile, electricity is already expensive and growing more so each year. The result is that a less-efficient gas furnace still costs far less to run than an electric version.
Furthermore, some gas furnaces are available that operate at efficiencies as high as 98.5%. They can cost more upfront, but they take an already inexpensive-to-run option and make it even cheaper. And when it comes to an electric furnace, you can’t possibly improve on 100% energy efficiency, right? As it turns out, you can.
Efficient Electric Heating Options
While an electric furnace makes a poor substitute for a gas furnace, they aren’t the only all-electric heating option. Instead of an electric furnace, you can opt for a heat pump. Heat pumps are all-electric and provide heating and cooling from a single unit. That means you can use one to replace your gas furnace and central AC. Best of all, they share a similar form factor to central AC systems, so most homes won’t need modifications to support one.
Right now, you’re likely wondering something along the lines of: If an electric furnace operating at 100% efficiency is a poor gas furnace replacement, why is a heat pump better? The answer is that heat pumps use some clever science to operate at efficiencies as high as 400%. If you’re wondering how that’s possible, we have a straightforward answer.
How Heat Pumps Work
Mechanically, a heat pump is almost identical to an air conditioner. They use a compressor to manipulate the pressure and temperature of a refrigerant, enabling it to carry or release heat as needed. That’s a simple description of the refrigeration cycle. The whole thing hinges on a simple thermodynamic principle. It’s the fact that heat energy will always spontaneously move from warmer substances to colder ones. It’s the same principle that explains why putting ice in a warm drink cools it off and causes the ice to melt.
An air conditioner uses the refrigeration cycle to cool your home. The process starts by reducing a refrigerant’s pressure, which in turn reduces its temperature. The cold refrigerant then absorbs heat from your home’s air until it boils into a warm gas. The AC’s compressor then increases the pressure of the gaseous refrigerant. That also increases its temperature to the point that it’s higher than that of the outdoor air. At that high a temperature, the refrigerant readily surrenders its heat to the outside air until condensing back into a liquid.
A heat pump includes a reversing valve that lets it run the refrigeration cycle in reverse. In other words, it sends the cold refrigerant outside to collect heat energy. The process works just as long as the refrigerant remains colder than the outdoor air. Then, the heat pump’s compressor amplifies the collected heat by ramping up the refrigerant’s pressure. That’s the secret to the amazingly high heating efficiency of heat pumps. They don’t use any electricity to produce heat. They only use it to collect heat that already exists in the outdoor air.
Do Heat Pumps Have Disadvantages?
Heat pumps do have a few disadvantages you should understand. One is that they output warm air at a lower temperature than you’d expect from a gas furnace. On average, a heat pump will output air that’s between 90 and 110 degrees in heating mode. Some homeowners report a drafty feeling because of that, especially if they’re accustomed to a gas furnace. It doesn’t mean a heat pump won’t keep your home warm. It’s just that air that’s lower than your average body temperature feels cool, even if it really isn’t.
Also, heat pumps do lose efficiency as it gets colder outside. Today’s cold-weather heat pumps will run at approximately 175% efficiency at temperatures as low as five degrees. That’s still efficient enough to prevent huge heating bill spikes. However, if we experience a prolonged cold snap, you may see a noticeable rise in your heating costs. If temperatures remain frigid for long enough, a heat pump may frequently engage a backup heating element, which can raise energy usage substantially.
Ronkonkoma’s Efficient Heating Specialists
Since 1975, Cool Power LLC has been the leading heating service company in Ronkonkoma. We sell and install quality furnaces and heat pumps from York, Lennox, Rheem, and Bosch. Our highly-trained HVAC technicians have the skill and experience to make your heating installation a success.
Plus, we offer free installation estimates and 12-month interest-free financing on approved credit. We even complete 75% of our installations in a single day, minimizing disruption to you. Feel free to check out our customer testimonials to see what it’s like to work with us.
When you’re ready for a new, efficient heating system in Ronkonkoma, call Cool Power LLC right away!
