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Before you install a new furnace in your Bucks County, PA, home, make sure you select a unit with a high AFUE rating. Not sure what AFUE ratings are, or how to find out the AFUE rating for your particular furnace? No worries — we’ll explain everything you need to know about AFUE ratings, what they mean for your heating costs, and how to find out the AFUE rating of your home’s furnace or a unit that you plan on buying in the near future. Let’s take a closer look at AFUE ratings!

What is AFUE Rating?

First things first: AFUE stands for Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency rating, which is a measurement of how well your heating system uses fuel to heat your home. The rating is on a scale out of 100, and the closer you are to a 100 percent AFUE rating, the more efficient your heating system is. If you have an AFUE rating of 65 percent, that means 65 percent of the fuel used in your furnace gets transferred to heat for your home — the other 35 percent is essentially being wasted or lost to combustion. In other words, 35 cents of every dollar would be wasted by a furnace with a 65 percent AFUE rating. With heat being one of a home’s most expensive energy costs each year, you definitely don’t want to be heating your home with a low-AFUE system. Do you know what your furnace’s AFUE rating is? 

How to Find Out Your Furnace’s AFUE Rating

You should be able to find the AFUE rating on your furnace’s faceplate. If you can’t find it there, try looking for the furnace’s model or serial number, which should be listed on the unit somewhere, unless it is outside on the compressor. Use that model or serial number on the manufacturer’s website to find your heating system’s AFUE rating.

If your furnace’s AFUE rating is on the lower side, you may want to consider investing in a newer, more efficient heating system. In the meantime, here are a few ways you can improve the energy efficiency of your current heating system:

Contact W.F. Smith for Help Installing a High AFUE Furnace 

Need help installing a high AFUE furnace in Bucks County, PA, or anywhere else nearby? You can count on W.F. Smith Heating & Air Conditioning to get the job done right every time. Call us today to learn more about AFUE ratings, or for help finding and installing the most efficient heating system for your home! 

If you’ve been burned by high energy bills or emergency air conditioning repairs in the past, you know the importance of being proactive about maintenance. In addition to your annual AC tune-up, there are steps any homeowner can take to prepare the AC for summer, avoid future repairs, and extend the life of the equipment.

Test Your Air Conditioner

If you haven’t started using your air conditioning yet this year, go ahead and turn it on now. Set it to several degrees below the current temp to make sure it can get cool. Listen for strange noises and look for leaks or other obvious problems.

Clean the Filter and Set a Schedule

Change your air filter (or clean a disposable filter), because dirty air makes the equipment have to work harder and can lead to freeze-ups or breakdowns. Then mark your calendar so you’ll remember to clean the filter once per month during cooling season, or however often the manufacturer recommends.

Clear Debris from the Outdoor Unit

Pick up leaves, branches, and trash that might have collected around your outdoor AC unit. If shrubs grow close to the equipment, prune them back to leave a few feet of space.

Straighten Bent Fins

Do the condenser fins look flattened? An AC tune-up will straighten things out. You can get a fin comb at the hardware store but be very careful!

Clean the Outdoor Unit

Use a vacuum attachment to clean the coils. For even better results, schedule a maintenance visit by a Philadelphia air conditioning company that will thoroughly clean all components.

Get a Smart Thermostat

One of the best ways to maintain your AC is to use it a little bit less. A programmable thermostat can pay for itself by avoiding energy waste while you’re at work, while extending the AC lifespan.

Use a Ceiling Fan

If you’re willing to turn the thermostat up a degree or two, using a ceiling fan to save energy will absolutely take some pressure off your AC and keep it running stronger over time.

Check Insulation and Weatherstripping

Philadelphia homes should have at least R-38 insulation in the attic. Consider adding more insulation wherever you can, and check window and door seals and weatherstrips to replace or add them as needed.

Throw Some Shade

Everyone likes letting in natural light, but you can maintain your AC better by avoiding excessive heat gain. Use blinds or heavy curtains on east- and west-facing windows, or grow shade trees outside of them.

Never Skip Annual AC Maintenance

If everything seems fine, you might be wondering if professional AC maintenance is worth it. At W.F. Smith, our tune-up includes more than just changing the filter and cleaning the air conditioner. We test for airflow and efficiency, tighten electrical connections, and spot concerns early before something serious happens.

To schedule AC maintenance in Philly, call 215-624-1313 or contact us online!

Choosing an HVAC contractor in Newton, PA isn’t as easy as just calling up the first number that you find. The last thing you want to do is hire an irreputable contractor that may overcharge you or do a poor job. The following are a few tips to help you choose an HVAC contractor in Newtown you can rely on!

Look Up Google Reviews

One of the advantages of the Internet is that it makes it pretty easy to look into a company’s reputation. If customers have been ripped off or have had a bad experience with a certain company, they’re sure to leave a poor review. Check the Google reviews on the contractors you’re looking at.

Remember, even the best contractors may have one or two bad reviews – just make sure that you compare the amount of good reviews as well.

Check the Better Business Bureau

Look the contractor up on the Better Business Bureau’s website. There, you’ll be able to find customer reviews as well as any complaints that were filed against the company. If a lot of complaints were filed with the Better Business Bureau, you may want to avoid working with that contractor.

However, if there are only one or two complains, delve a little further to see if they were resolved. Just like bad reviews, complaints can occur – it’s what the contractor did to resolve them that matters. Of course, if there are dozens of complains, you may want to look elsewhere.

Ask For Recommendations

One of the best ways to find a good HVAC contractor is to ask friends and family for recommendations. Not only can they give you the name of a contractor that they were especially happy with, they may also provide a name or two of who you should avoid.

Look For Customer Testimonials

What better way to get an idea of what customers think of a company than through customer testimonials? A contractor that is proud of its quality service will seek out customers to provide testimonials. While written testimonials are a good indicator of the contractor’s quality, video testimonials are even better.

Check Out Their Website

A high quality HVAC contractor in Newtown, PA that takes great pride in their work will typically try to set up a professional looking website – like ours for example! They want their website to reflect their quality, after all. A contractor that couldn’t be bothered with their website, which means it runs poorly or looks like it was set up a decade ago, might not care about the details and may not put the kind of effort into their business that you would like to see.

Check Their Google Ranking

HVAC contractors with high Google rankings typically have a lot of happy customers. It’s usually indicative of their popularity, which is usually a good sign of their quality.

If you are looking to hire an HVAC contractor in Newton, PA, then be sure to use these tips or contact our team for information on our HVAC services in Newtown today.

When it comes to purchasing a new air conditioning unit, there are a lot of factors that you will want to consider before coming to a decision. These factors include the energy efficiency of the unit, the cost and the easiness of installation. While comparing various air conditioning units, you’re going to come across two common types – window air conditioners and central air conditioners.

The following information will help you determine which best suits your needs:

Central Air Conditioners vs. Window Air Conditioners: What’s the Difference?

Window air conditioners are very different than central air conditioner. A central air conditioner involves many more parts. Typically, there is a condenser unit that sits outside of the building, whether it’s in the yard or up on a roof. The condenser uses a set of pipes to run coolant into the air handler. Central air conditioners also make use of the duct system within the building in order to distribute cool air throughout individual rooms.

A window air conditioner is a single unit that contains no other parts. The unit has a condenser, evaporator, thermostat and fan already built in. The unit is designed to be wedged into a window frame and is most effectively used to cool single rooms.

Central Air Conditioners vs. Window Air Conditioners: What’s Cheaper?

The window air conditioner is by far the easier one to install since it doesn’t need to be connected to a duct system in order to disperse air. All you need to do is open up the window and fit the unit between the frame before shutting the window down onto the top of the unit. This is something that you can easily do on your own.

With a central air conditioner, you are going to need to hire an HVAC professional to have it properly installed. Central air conditioners will also require regular inspection and maintenance, neither of which are necessary with window air conditioners. These costs are all going to add up, making the window air conditioner a cheaper purchase.

Central Air Conditioners vs. Window Air Conditioners: What’s More Efficient?

When you look at the stats, it may seem like a window unit will use less energy. The average window unit uses between 500 and 1,440 watts of electricity in order to run, whereas a central air conditioner in the average-sized home uses around 3,500 watts. Part of the reason why central air conditioners use so much energy is because they need to use moving parts in order to disperse the cool air throughout the home.

However, a window unit is only effective at cooling one room at a time. This means that to cool the entire home, you would need window units for every room. This becomes less energy efficient and more costly than operating a central air conditioner – especially since new technology, such as automation and zoning – allow central air conditioners to be even more efficient than before.

Questions? Call W.F. Smith!

Keep these things in mind when choosing an air conditioner and be sure to contact W.F. Smith today for additional HVAC advice. We’ve serviced Philadelphia’s HVAC needs for 70 years!