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Furnace Efficiency
79. Know when your heating system is
wasting fuel and costing you money
Furnace efficiency saves you money, is it or isn’t it?
I’m one of those guys who keeps an eye on my furnace all year long and wondering how well it’s actually doing. Fortunately, there’s a quick and easy way to do it.
Remember that pencil hole I told you about in the flue? If you can measure the temperature of the gas as it leaves the furnace, it’ll give you a strong indication of how well your furnace is performing.
If you’re using a conventional oil-fired furnace, manufactured in the last 30 years or so, the maximum allowed temperature of that flue gas is around 750° Fahrenheit. Normally it’s between 350°-540° F .
The lower the temperature the more efficient your furnace and the more heat it’s transferring to your home.
The only way to measure this is run down to your local heating supply company or ask your hardware store to order a chimney flue gas thermometer.
It looks kind of like a kitchen meat thermometer, but it reads at much higher temperatures.
It has a probe like you would stick into the meat, but instead you’re sticking into the pencil hole in the flue. This allows you to quickly find out just how hot those flue gases are.
If you want, you can actually leave it in there, but every time you want an accurate measurement you need to pull it out and clean the probe and then reinstall it, because it may eventually get sooty.
Remember, when you’re doing this you need to turn up the thermostat to get the furnace to run for at least 10 to 15 minutes in order to get the best reading.
What I really like about this tool is that it allows you to verify if the tech, who did your tune up, did a good job, because you can check the temperature before and after that furnace is serviced.
I require the tech to give me his readings before and after on his unit too.
Just so you know, for every increase of 75° F in temperature, you lose 3% in efficiency.
So every time that thermometer goes up 75°, you’re losing 3%. It adds up FAST.
oil-furnace-maintenance is your best preventative measure against break downs, wasteing fuel and ultimatly saving money.
Stay warm, stay safe and save money
