Why Replace?

Higher efficiency systems can reduce your energy usage and save you money on your monthly energy bills.

Does a new high efficiency system make sense for you?

Making the decision to replace an old or inefficient system involves a lot of consideration including age of the old equipment, price of the replacement, size of the house, monthly energy savings, financing, available service contracts and much more. The Home Comfort Specialists at BGE HOME can help you find the right heating and air conditioning solution for your home.

When you install a new high efficiency heating and air conditioning system from           BGE HOME, you will use less energy and save money. The higher the equipment heating and cooling efficiency ratings, the lower your monthly operating costs.

The heating and air conditioning specialists at BGE HOME have one job. To keep your home cool and comfortable in the summer and warm and cozy in the winter. It’s what we do.

By evaluating your current comfort conditions and understanding your expectations, you’ll be able to focus on whether replacing your heating and cooling systems is right for you and your family. Read through the questions below and share the answers with our Home Comfort Specialists. This is the best way to ensure that your comfort needs are met and will help our home comfort professionals properly size up your heating and air conditioning needs.

1. Are your heating and cooling bills too high?
   
   
2. Does your furnace short-cycle (consistently turn off and on)?
   
   
3. Does your system run all the time?
   
   
4. Are there any rooms in your home that are always too hot or too cold?
   
   
5. Are your heating and cooling systems too noisy?
   
   
6. Do you want a system replacement or are you tying into an existing system?
   
   
7. What is your house’s size, the number of windows, and the amount of sun exposure?
   
   
8. Do you plan on remodeling or adding an addition in the near future?

Why is the right size so important?

A system that is too large will cool or heat your house too quickly, but you still may not feel comfortable. The system stress of short-cycling (too many starts and stops) can shorten the life of your equipment and increase your heating and cooling bills.

On the other hand, a system that is too small just cannot get the job done. The air conditioner will run constantly in the summer and the furnace will do the same in the winter. Our Home Comfort Specialists will determine the correct system size needed for your home by doing a room-by-room load calculation. This heat loss/heat gain analysis is the best indicator of the correct system size.

What To Look For

For most of us, comfort starts with keeping our home the right temperature, whether that’s toasty warm on bone-chilling winter nights or pleasantly cool in the "dog days" of summer. Maintaining the perfect temperature is the job of your heating and cooling equipment.

Today’s heating systems are more efficient and reliable than ever, but heating is still the single largest energy expense in most homes. Therefore, it’s important to understand what kind of system will give you both comfort and affordability.

For heating and air conditioning equipment, several industry measures have been established to indicate the efficiency of the different types of equipment. Descriptions of those measures are detailed below; but, in general, its important to remember that the higher the efficiency rating, the greater the energy savings. When properly selected, higher efficiency matched systems offer improved comfort at reduced operating costs.

SEER - Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating is the measure of efficiency by which the cooling process of air conditioners and heat pumps are rated. The higher the SEER number, the greater the efficiency - which translates into greater energy savings.

On January 23, 2006 the federal minimum efficiency standard for central air conditioners made in the US was raised to 13 SEER - a 30% increase over the last standard.
(BGE HOME will continue to service units that do not meet the minimum standard. The new standard only applied to systems manufactured after January 23, 2006.) You can obtain additional information at www.energy.gov.

AFUE - Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency is the standard measurement of efficiency for gas and oil-fired furnaces. A lot like your car’s miles per gallon rating, AFUE tells you how efficiently the furnace converts fuel (gas or oil) into heat. An AFUE of 90% means that 90% of the fuel is used to heat your home, while the other 10% basically goes up the chimney.

In 1992, the U.S. government established a minimum AFUE rating for furnaces installed in new homes at 78%. (In contrast, many furnaces manufactured before 1992 had AFUE ratings as low as 60%; - so nearly half the fuel was being wasted.) Furnaces with AFUE ratings of 78% to 80% are considered "mid- efficiency"; those with ratings of 90% or higher are known as "high-efficiency." The maximum furnace efficiency available is around 96.6%. Given in percentages, this number tells you how much of your fuel is used to heat your home and how much fuel is simply wasted. The higher the AFUE rating, the greater the efficiency. BGE HOME offers a full-line of furnaces with AFUE ratings ranging from 80% to more than 92%.

HSPF- Heating Seasonal Performance Factor is the efficiency measurement used to gauge the efficiency of the heating mode of heat pumps. In general, the higher the HSPF rating, the less electricity the unit will use to heat your home. Again, the higher the number - the greater the efficiency.

The government minimum heating efficiency standards for new heat pumps is 7.7 HSPF. BGE HOME offers heat pumps with HSPF ratings ranging from 7.7 to 9.3.

Types of Home Comfort Equipment

	Air Conditioners An air conditioner makes your home cooler, but, in terms of how the system actually works, it’s more accurate to say that an air conditioner makes your home less warm. What it is really doing is drawing heat out of the house and transferring that heat to the outdoors where it’s already hot. In the process, they remove humidity from the air so you feel even cooler. New technology has made today’s air conditioners quieter, more reliable and more efficient than ever before. ^TOP
	Furnaces Within the last few years, technological advances in gas furnace design have given homeowners a myriad of choices. All gas furnaces consist of four main components: burners (where the gas is delivered and burned), heat exchangers (that transfer the heat from the burners to the air distribution system); a blower (that moves the heated air through the ducts and into the home); and a flue (that exhausts the gaseous byproducts of combustion to the outdoors. Gas furnaces provide warm, even heat throughout your home by circulating heated air through ducts. Boilers typically heat your home by circulating steam or heated water through a system of pipes and baseboard or radiator-type heat exchangers. Today’s furnaces and boilers are far more efficient than they were even a decade ago. ^TOP
	Heat Pump A heat pump looks just like an air conditioner, but it does double duty, acting as a heater in the winter and an air conditioner in the summer. It’s called a "heat pump" because it pumps heat into your home in the winter and pumps heat out of your home in the summer. Put simply, it moves heat from one place to another. Whereas, a furnace, actually makes heat in order to distribute it. Its ability to both heat and cool makes it a very economical and efficient home comfort system. However, the ability to utilize this type of system in your current home will depend on your ductwork. The heat pump is another energy-efficient option that provides year-round heating and cooling. Heat pumps are much more reliable and efficient than they were 10 years ago, and they’re an excellent choice where gas is unavailable or where electricity is the most economical energy option. ^TOP
	Boilers A gas, oil, propane, or solid-fuel-burning appliance that produces hot water or steam which is circulated through pipes to heat-radiating devices in a room. Boilers and radiators are not often installed in new homes, but many older homes feature this type of heating system, and steam or hot-water heating is still the system of choice for many apartments and multi-family dwellings. Steam and hot-water heating systems have several advantages over other systems. They are very efficient, and since they have few moving parts, they are reliable and durable, lasting for many years. They are quiet and provide even, consistent heat that is clean and dust-free. In a steam heating system, a boiler heats water by means of a gas or oil-fired burner and turns it into steam. The steam travels through pipes to radiators or convectors, which give off heat and warm the room. As the steam cools, it condenses back into water, and returns to the boiler to be heated again. Hot water heating systems operate on the same principle, using hot water instead of steam to heat the radiators. Modern boiler systems are significantly more efficient than older systems. Even if your present boiler is still giving trouble-free service, the fuel savings of a new unit could outweigh the cost of a replacement in a few years. The Columbia Formula for Total Energy Efficiency Price - A Columbia gas-fired boiler is a great value at an affordable price. Our Home Comfort specialists will work with you to assure that you choose the boiler that fits your exact comfort needs, as well as your budget. Performance - These heating units are quality engineered for economy and dependability. You’l enjoy the benefits of an energy-efficient system from BGE HOME that comes with a limited lifetime warranty. Payback - Depending on your current boiler, it’s possible that a new boiler from BGE HOME will pay for itself within three years of installation. ^TOP

Home Comfort Accessories

Thermostats

Why is your Thermostat Important?

Thermostats help your heating and cooling equipment maintain the optimal temperature setting. Today’s electronic models are a vast departure from earlier mechanical styles. Microprocessors allow you to program your home temperatures to suit your lifestyle, so you can keep things comfortable while you’re home and automatically set back your temperatures to save energy when you’re away or sleeping.

Electronic thermostats work in much the same way as older, manual thermostats did. The microprocessor inside compares the thermometers reading of a room’s temperature to the desired temperature you select. Then, it gives start and stop commands to the heating or cooling system to bring the temperature to a level that makes you comfortable.

Programmable thermostats basically work the same way, but they are far more convenient. Once you program the thermostat to customize the system’s operation to fit your lifestyle and schedule, all you have to do is relax and let it do all the work. You simply program into its memory the temperatures you need, at what time of the day, to stay comfortable and save energy all season. You only need to program it once - until your lifestyle changes.

The most important way that a programmable thermostat saves energy is in its setback feature. When you don’t need a normal level of heating or cooling, you can program the thermostat to set the temperature back until the next pre-programmed time when you want normal temperatures. Programming temperatures around 63 degrees on cold winter nights, when you’re snuggled under blankets. You can save even more by programming your system to "setback" the temperature when your family is away at work, at school, or on vacation.

To request more information from a Home Comfort Specialist regarding thermostats, click here.

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Air Cleaners

Today’s "tighter" homes are built to be more energy-efficient, and many seal in air as effectively as they keep the weather out. That may sound good at first, but it also means that air quickly gets stale. Plus, dust and other pollutants circulate throughout your home, settling on furniture, drapes, your heating and cooling equipment or, worse yet, your lungs. Today’s mechanical and high-efficiency electronic air cleaners offer trouble-free, low-maintenance cleaning that will remove up to 95% of all airborne particles and make your home environment healthier and more comfortable. A ventilating system can provide up to eight air changes a day and eliminate the unhealthy build-up of gases and contaminants in your home. It’s literally a breath of fresh air.

For more information regarding air cleaners as well as other BGE HOME products designed to improve your homes indoor air quality, click here.

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Whole House Humidifiers

To achieve maximum comfort in the winter, your home should be equipped with a whole house humidifier. It helps reduce dry throat and itchy skin, keeps furniture and your home from drying out and increases energy efficiency.

Humidifiers can also help reduce your monthly heating bills because humidified air feels warmer than dry air, even at a lower temperature setting. For example, a temperature of 69 degrees at 35% relative humidity feels just as warm as 72 degrees with a relative humidity of 19%. Setting your thermostat back by 3 degrees can reduce annual heating costs up to 5%.

For more information regarding whole house humidifiers as well as other BGE HOME products designed to improve your homes indoor air quality, click here.

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