Plan Your Furnace/Boiler Project Carefully

Prior to installing high-efficiency heating/cooling (HVAC) equipment, GreenHomes recommends improving your insulation levels. Additionally, we recommend reducing your air leakage rate. These steps help provide a more accurately sized furnace, boiler or air conditioner that matches your heating/cooling demands. This process is also known as finding the heating/cooling loads of your home. However, for very old, inefficient and unreliable heating systems, new installations are a priority. In addition to a boiler or furnace upgrade, adding or repairing a new duct system remains a priority for some as well. Always ensure your home heating works during harsh, wintertime conditions.

There are many situations, however, in which the replacement of the existing furnace or boiler is not an emergency and your existing system is operating reliably and modestly efficient. In these situations, homes should be air sealed and insulated when a new furnace or boiler upgrade is planned.

When upgrading your older, existing heating system, follow these steps:

1. Air seal and insulate your home whenever possible as part of the furnace/boiler upgrade
2. Make sure an ACCA Manual J type of heating/cooling load calculation and an ACCA Manual S equipment selection is completed
3. Select a high-efficiency furnace or boiler (95% AFUE or greater for natural gas and propane gas systems or 87% AFUE for oil-fired systems) whenever possible
4. Include duct sealing and duct insulation as part of the furnace upgrade or heating pipe insulation as part of your boiler upgrade
5. Don’t forget - Proper maintenance of your new furnace or boiler is important!