Dasmarka Real Estate

To make your home more energy efficient, you need to understand the energy efficiency of different types of heating and cooling systems. Knowing this information can be of great help when it comes time to buy or sell your home. Many times people are confused by inaccurate information they receive from manufacturers and sellers of heating and cooling equipment. But all you need to know in order to make wise decisions when purchasing this equipment are a few simple facts.

Sizing and Equipment Is Important.
First of all, the proper sizing of equipment is of utmost importance for comfort and low utility bills. Once the proper size is known, then you must decide what type of system best suits your needs. Let's look at three ways houses are heated: natural gas furnace, air-to- air electric heat pump, geothermal heat pump (electricity). Now, let's consider how efficient they are. And when I talk about heating efficiency, I'm talking about how efficiently the system converts either natural gas or electricity to heat for your home.

· Gas Furnace - 80% Efficient
A typical gas furnace will be rated at about 80 percent efficiency when it is new and if it is installed properly. That percentage will lessen with each year's use. An 80-percent efficiency rating means that 80 percent of the gas used will provide heat and the other 20 percent goes up the flue. For example, look at your neighbor's gas flue on a cold winter morning and see the steam coming out.

· Another Type Of Heating - An Air-To-Air Heat Pump
Another popular type of heating system, an air- to-air heat pump, uses electricity instead of gas. An air-to-air heat pump, properly installed, would operate at an efficiency of around 250 percent. I know what you are thinking. "How can anything be more than 100 percent energy efficient?"

Efficiency
Remember, we are talking about how efficiently a unit uses either electricity or gas to move or create heat. Unlike a gas-fired furnace, a heat pump does not actually create heat, it simply moves heat from one location to another. Air-to-air pumps extract the heat from the air. With a heat pump, you use one unit of electricity and get about 2.5 units of heat. A good point when selling your home.

· Thermal Heat

My favorite system, the geothermal heat pump, is simply the very best there is. Most geothermal heating systems operate at close to 400 percent energy efficiency! That's five times the efficiency of the 80 percent gas furnace. As this heat pump is extracting heat from Mother Earth, which is a constant 57 degrees, it is operating on minimal stress and using a very small amount of electricity to move the heat from the earth into the house. With a geothermal system, you buy one unit of electricity (one unit of heat) and Mother Earth will give you three more units of heat for free (that three units of heat is solar energy that Mr. Sunshine gave us over millions of years). WOW that still blows my mind.

I Pull Out All The Stops To Sell Your Home
Lonnie Snyder
REALTOR®
Keller Williams Realty Southeast Sound
Phone: 206-406-2710
Email: snyder@kw.com
Website: http://www.callsnyder.com/

Lonnie Snyder is a full time real estate agent and REALTOR® with Keller Williams Realty specializing in Residential Real Estate for buyers and sellers in Washington’s Kent, Renton, Newcastle and South Bellevue.Oh, By The Way. . . . . I AM NEVER TOO BUSY FOR REFERRALS.