If you need to replace your home’s furnace, it’s important to carefully consider what type of furnace you want to install. Gas and electric furnaces can both be good options in certain situations, each with specific advantages and drawbacks. Here, we’ll discuss the differences between gas and electric furnaces and show you the pros and cons of each. This will make it easier to decide which one is best for your home.
Differences in How Gas and Electric Furnaces Heat
Gas and electric furnaces both provide forced-air heating. That means they work by raising the temperature of the cooler air that gets drawn into the heating system through the return air ductwork. The heating system then circulates the hot air around the house via the supply ducts and finally out into each room through the supply vents. While both types of furnaces work similarly and serve the same purpose, they create heat differently.
Electric furnaces work using electric resistance. When electricity flows through a metal wire, the resistance it encounters quickly causes the wire to heat up until it’s glowing hot. The easiest way to understand this process is to think about what happens to the filament in an incandescent light bulb when you turn it on. Electric furnaces contain multiple electric resistance heating coils that get extremely hot when the furnace runs. As the furnace blower pulls cooler air in, the heat emanating off these coils greatly raises the temperature of the air.
Gas furnaces work by burning natural gas or propane to produce heat, but the process is a bit more complicated. When natural gas or propane is burned, it produces extremely hot combustion fumes that mostly consist of carbon dioxide and water vapor. The draft inducer in a gas furnace is just a fan that creates negative air pressure. This pulls the hot fumes out of the combustion chamber and through a series of metal tubes or pipes known as a heat exchanger. As the fumes flow through the heat exchanger, the metal tubes absorb most of the heat they contain. The inducer then draws the fumes up into the exhaust flue or chimney so that they are safely vented outside the building.
The heat exchanger is what allows a gas furnace to effectively heat and ensures that the combustion fumes stay separate from the air inside the home. This is important since furnaces can sometimes produce carbon monoxide when not working properly. The heat exchanger ensures that the carbon monoxide and other fumes can’t escape into the house.
As with an electric furnace, the blower in a gas furnace constantly pulls in cooler air. When this air flows over the heat exchanger, much of the heat stored in the metal tubes flows out to heat the air. This process typically results in the air flowing out of the furnace being 50-70 degrees hotter than the air coming into it.
Pros and Cons of Gas Furnaces
The biggest advantage of gas furnaces is that they produce a huge amount of heat and can raise the temperature inside a house extremely quickly. This is why gas furnaces are by far the most common heating option in Michigan and other places that experience freezing-cold winter weather. Once a home is heated, a gas furnace will typically only need to run for 10-15 minutes at a time a few times an hour to maintain the correct temperature. This ensures that the home stays consistently warm while also minimizing how much energy the heating system uses.
One drawback to gas furnaces is that they can be a safety hazard. This is because there is a potential for carbon monoxide to escape and leak out into the home if the heat exchanger is cracked or the furnace isn’t venting the fumes outside properly. That’s why it’s essential to have carbon monoxide detectors in your home if you have a gas furnace or any other gas-burning appliances. It’s also why having a gas furnace maintained regularly is important since it helps to prevent carbon monoxide from being produced and ensures that the fumes are being vented outside as they should be.
Another issue with gas furnaces is their environmental impact since they produce carbon emissions. However, this issue isn’t as significant when comparing the impact of gas and electric furnaces. Electric furnaces don’t produce carbon emissions themselves. However, generating the electricity required for the furnace to run does produce carbon emissions unless the electricity comes from renewable sources or non-carbon sources such as nuclear power.
Pros and Cons of Electric Furnaces
Electric furnaces generally have a few distinct advantages over gas furnaces. One is that they are less expensive to purchase and install. They also usually have a longer life expectancy, require less maintenance, and are easier to repair. Most gas furnaces last for around 15 years, whereas electric furnaces typically last for 20 or even 30 years.
One of the biggest drawbacks to electric furnaces is that they can use a massive amount of electricity and can be incredibly costly to operate. In a cold climate, you’d usually need at least a 15- to 20-kilowatt electric furnace to heat your home effectively. That means an electric furnace would potentially use up to 10 times as much electricity as a central air conditioner. The high energy demand is why electric furnaces are more commonly used in places with warmer winters where a home doesn’t need nearly as large of a furnace. In Michigan, heating a home with an electric furnace will typically cost around three times as much as using a gas furnace or potentially even more.
Of course, the exact difference in heating costs between the two can vary quite a bit depending on how energy efficient the gas furnace is. Electric furnaces work by just changing electrical energy into heat energy, and they typically do this at a rate of one-to-one. Furnace efficiency is measured in AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency), which expresses the percentage of energy consumption that is directly used for heating. The fact that electric furnaces just convert electricity into heat means they are typically 100% efficient or 100% AFUE. The efficiency of a gas furnace can range between 80% and 98.5% AFUE depending on whether it is a conventional furnace or a high-efficiency condensing furnace. Even though electric furnaces are a bit more efficient, they still cost more to run since they have such high energy demands.
Another issue with electric furnaces is that they don’t work as effectively and take a longer time to fully heat a home. This is because the electric resistance coils don’t produce nearly as much heat as the burner in a gas furnace. An electric furnace usually only heats the air flowing through it to around 95 degrees Fahrenheit. The air coming out of a gas furnace is usually between 120 and 140 degrees. That means on extremely cold days, an electric furnace may end up having to run almost constantly to keep your home warm enough.
Your Trusted Professionals
Since 1946, Matheson Heating, Air & Plumbing has been providing trustworthy heating and air conditioning services to customers throughout the Commerce Township area. Whether you want to install a new furnace or need maintenance, or any other HVAC or plumbing service, contact our team to get the expert advice and assistance your family deserves.