Is your high efficiency natural gas furnace lowered your gas bill？

[yanzhiqiang]

I replaced my 35 years old gas furnace to 97% high efficiency one，10 month later，I compared every month bill to last years found no saving at all. I want to know if high efficiency gas furnace really lower your natural gas bill to 40%?

[Karnbot13]

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@yanzhiqiang wrote:

Thanks I will call fortis BC.

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If they inspect your meter and there isn't a problem, do a heat loss calculation for your house and see what size your furnace should be. Once you have that number, go look and see what size you have. Post up the numbers and I can walk you through it from there. I have a couple of ideas why it hasn't changed but until you have numbers, I'm just guessing

[Karnbot13]

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@darlicious wrote:

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@yanzhiqiang wrote:

I did math, how many GL every day used not less but more with same avrage outside temp. 

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@yanzhiqiang If everything else has remained the same and you are using more GJ per day you should probably have the installation company due an inspection. You should get one done at one year anyways. Look at your service contract...there probably should have been a follow up visit that's included. It may not be actually running as efficiently as it should be or something isn't quite installed correctly. As well are you changing the filters every 2 months and/ or using the right ones? Not changing the filters as per manufacturer instructions can make a big difference in efficiency. What company installed it? Did you apply for an energy rebate and have that program inspect it to qualify for a rebate?

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Every 2 months is overkill unless you have pets and refuse to vacuum. As long as you're getting proper airflow and not tripping the high limit sensor, it won't make that large a difference

[yanzhiqiang]

Thanks I will call fortis BC.

[darlicious]

@yanzhiqiang  Whoops missed your post....yes call the gas company you could have a small leak  at the metre or somethings not quite right. I've had leakage...gas company couldn't tell if the slight shift in the piping was caused by the furnace replacement or house shifting, minor earthquake etc... but once it was fixed the consumption went down. Natural gas prices are so low it would be hard to see a big difference (but yours being new and supposed to deliver a 40% cost savings) you are noticing no difference when there should be... in my case gas prices were more than triple they are now and I would catch the odd slight whiff of gas when I would open the window nearest to the metre and called them in to investigate.

[darlicious]

@yanzhiqiang  If your new furnace has a digital panel it's probably not calibrated correctly and the filters....make a big difference. What make and model?

[yanzhiqiang]

I got $700 rebate by mail in a form, nobody did any inspection.

[yanzhiqiang]

I called them(dont want tell thire company name), they came twice with different technicians both said every thing is OK (including filter), they want me call gas company to caliberate meter. LOL

[darlicious]

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@yanzhiqiang wrote:

I did math, how many GL every day used not less but more with same avrage outside temp. 

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@yanzhiqiang If everything else has remained the same and you are using more GJ per day you should probably have the installation company due an inspection. You should get one done at one year anyways. Look at your service contract...there probably should have been a follow up visit that's included. It may not be actually running as efficiently as it should be or something isn't quite installed correctly. As well are you changing the filters every 2 months and/ or using the right ones? Not changing the filters as per manufacturer instructions can make a big difference in efficiency. What company installed it? Did you apply for an energy rebate and have that program inspect it to qualify for a rebate?

[Karnbot13]

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@yanzhiqiang wrote:

I did math, how many GL every day used not less but more with same avrage outside temp. 

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What is GL? Average temperature means very little. You have to break it down to the gas used during a known period of heating degree days. That's the only way to compare apples to apples. 

[yanzhiqiang]

I did math, how many GL every day used not less but more with same avrage outside temp. 

[genjel54]

Could be. Have high efficiency gas boiler in my house that is very economical. 

[Karnbot13]

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@genjel54 wrote:

You should see some savings simply because the high efficiency furnace will be using outside air (direct vent) for combustion vs. air from inside your house from the old furnace. 

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Possibly not. The new fan in the furnace may make any air imbalances worse due to poor duct work install. It happens very often, but hey, forced air is cheap to install. Not many people want to pay or even know what a quality installation looks, sounds or feels like. 

[genjel54]

You should see some savings simply because the high efficiency furnace will be using outside air (direct vent) for combustion vs. air from inside your house from the old furnace. 

[will13am]

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@Lar wrote:

When I had the new furnace put in I also expected much lower gas bills.  Same house, no changes but I thought the new furnace would burn fuel better.  Did not happen, bills are the same more or less because the price of gas fluctuates up and down but not that much.

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Technically speaking you should realize some savings as everything else is equal in this case.  I suggest you take the quantity of gas consumed and normalize it by the number of heating degree days over the billing period.  Take out some old bills before furnace replacement and do the same.  Do the new normalized number show better than the old ones.  I am suggesting this because it takes out the weather impact and cost per unit of gas.  

[Lar]

When I had the new furnace put in I also expected much lower gas bills.  Same house, no changes but I thought the new furnace would burn fuel better.  Did not happen, bills are the same more or less because the price of gas fluctuates up and down but not that much.

[buiya]

The other thing to take into consideration is your gas rate, the price for natural gas fluctuates a lot. So make sure to look at your rate when doing comparisons and what your usage is. 

[Karnbot13]

The correct answer is "it depends". If all else is equal, you will see a reduction in the fuel use but there are many factors that affect whether it will be a 40% reduction or not. Try running a heat loss analysis of the structure or compare the therms of fuel used in a known period against the heating degree days in that same period. That will tell you how much fuel was used but unless you have the information from the old set up, you won't be able to accurately compare the difference. Hopefully this answered your question. If not, ask some more

[yanzhiqiang]

Re: Is your high efficiency natural gas furnace lowered your gas bill？

High-efficiency furnace will only use less energy if the whole home has generally high-efficiency insulation and thermal ratings.

The thing will be on just as often and use just as much energy if all your heat seeps out of your roof, walls, windows, and doors. It would have to run just as much heat (energy) into your house as a lower-efficiency counterpart.

Everything is the same except the new furnace.

[yanzhiqiang]

High-efficiency furnace will only use less energy if the whole home has generally high-efficiency insulation and thermal ratings.

The thing will be on just as often and use just as much energy if all your heat seeps out of your roof, walls, windows, and doors. It would have to run just as much heat (energy) into your house as a lower-efficiency counterpart.

Everything is the same except the new furnace.

[Anonymous]

When I was not employed for far too long a number of years ago, I was living in a new house. All the modern trappings etc.

I had always subscribed to the notion to turn down the heat during sleep and day time out hours.

I realized after all this that leaving the heat on the same temp 24/7 actually saved energy/money over the course of that year or so.

After the fact it kinda makes sense. If the whole house cools down then everything cools down. Then it takes the time and energy to warm it all up again. But even still, everything that had cooled down is still radiating it's cooler-ness well later.

So I leave my temperature control on the same temp 24/7.

[Korth]

High-efficiency furnace will only use less energy if the whole home has generally high-efficiency insulation and thermal ratings.

The thing will be on just as often and use just as much energy if all your heat seeps out of your roof, walls, windows, and doors. It would have to run just as much heat (energy) into your house as a lower-efficiency counterpart.