When you look at the calendar and see the word October, you know the time is counting down until the first cold day of the season arrives. If you feel confident in your current furnace and you’ve already planned on scheduling heating maintenance (or have already got it done), then you won’t have much to worry about when the cold strikes.
But you may be in a situation where you believe your furnace needs to be replaced. You can go ahead and schedule Mason, OH, HVAC service to put in a new furnace. Or you might consider replacing the furnace with a dual fuel system, a popular way of enjoying a hybrid of electrical and gas heating in a house.
We’ll look at the pros and cons of choosing a furnace or dual fuel system. When you’re ready to make the final choice, call our technicians for an expert opinion and the work necessary to get your new heater prepared.
Changing to a Dual Fuel System
First, we need to clarify what a dual fuel system is. It’s a heat pump—an electrical comfort system that operates as both a heater and air conditioner—with a backup furnace. This backup furnace can run from natural gas or propane, depending on what’s available to the house.
Heat pumps are effective at air conditioning, but their heating can sometimes run into trouble with efficiency if the outside temperature drops too low. To provide warmth to a house, the heat pump must draw on outdoor thermal energy. If the outside temperature drops too much below freezing, the heat pump will start to lose energy efficiency. This is when the supplemental furnace activates. It makes up the difference until the heat pump can work efficiently again and return to electric heat.
A dual fuel system can help a home lower its heating costs, and the convenience of having heating and cooling together is a big benefit. The drawback is that the dual fuel system must replace the AC and heater at the same time, or it won’t be worth it. If you don’t think you need a new air conditioner this fall as well, then dual fuel may not be ideal.
Staying With a Furnace
A natural gas furnace is a powerful way to heat a home, and one of the most reliable. If you have concerns about maintaining comfort in your house, then sticking with a gas furnace is a good choice. However, if you use an electric furnace or a propane furnace, you’ll probably pay much more to heat your home than if you switched to a dual fuel system. Electric furnaces are often extremely expensive to run, where a dual fuel system uses less electricity and only occasionally has to shift to the supplemental heat of its backup propane furnace.
Let Us Find the Right Answer for You
Whether you choose a dual fuel system or a furnace for your comfort this fall will depend on many specific factors in your house: do you use natural gas or propane, do you need to replace the AC as well, how much does electricity cost… etc. We’ll help you put together all the criteria and find the right system installation.
“For a Comfortable Way of Life,” call Bartels Heating & Cooling to schedule your new heating system installation.