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When it’s time to upgrade your home heating system, you have the option of choosing between a gas or an electric furnace. Both come with benefits and drawbacks that you should understand when making your ultimate purchasing decision. Below, we’ll dive into more details about how these systems perform in Knoxville so you can make a better-informed buying decision.
How Does a Gas Furnace Heat Your Home?
When comparing these two units, you first need to know how each one functions. Gas furnaces work by burning fuel to produce heat for your home. A furnace can burn natural gas or propane, depending on the particular style of furnace it is. Whenever your thermostat detects that your home’s temperature is below your desired temperature setting, it will signal your furnace to turn on.
An electric igniter inside the gas furnace will send a spark to the burner to ignite it. The burner will consistently burn the fuel supplied to it to produce heat. These hot combustion fumes will travel inside a metal heat exchanger. As the blower fan in your ducting circulates air around the heat exchanger, the air will absorb the heat. This hot air then travels throughout your ducting to all the rooms in your home to effectively warm them.
Advantages of Gas Furnaces
Many modern-day gas furnaces are available with high operating efficiency ratings in the 90 to 98% range. This means that up to 98% of the energy input into the furnace is outputted via usable heat energy. With natural gas infrastructure being highly abundant in the Knoxville area, most homeowners have access to cheap natural gas.
Gas furnaces are known to produce higher heat temperatures than their electrical counterparts. They typically deliver heat at around 120 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. This means that your rooms will heat up faster and maintain more even warmth on the coldest days of the year.
Gas furnaces will produce a consistent supply of steady heat regardless of the outdoor temperatures. This type of furnace can be highly desirable for those living in outdated homes with little insulation. Their intense blast of heat is ideal for quickly heating up under-insulated and larger homes.
Typically, gas furnaces have a lifespan of around 15 to 20 years with proper care and maintenance. While they do tend to cost more upfront than electric furnaces, they’re often less expensive overall due to lower operating costs over their lifespan. Gas furnaces are considered a cleaner alternative to outdated oil-burning furnaces, too.
How Does An Electric Furnace Heat Your Home?
Electric furnaces work on the principle of resistance heating, similar to that of a space heater or a toaster. Whenever your thermostat calls for heat, electricity will flow through the heating elements inside your furnace. These elements will start to warm up. The blower fan for your ducting will push air through the inside of your furnace so it can be heated as it passes over the elements.
Advantages of Electric Furnaces
A large advantage of electric furnaces is that they don’t produce any toxic exhaust fumes. Gas furnaces produce carbon monoxide as a byproduct of the combustion process when they burn fuel. Carbon monoxide can be dangerous when it builds up in your home due to a fault with your furnace. When you have an electric furnace, you don’t have to worry about those dangerous, toxic fume emissions. In fact, electric furnaces don’t require any sort of venting like gas furnaces do and pose no risk of carbon monoxide leaks.
Electric furnaces operate at 100% efficiency. This means for every unit of energy input, there is a unit of heat output with no energy loss. The input cost for electricity tends to be higher than that of natural gas in the Knoxville area, but some parts of the community experience pretty mild winter conditions that can make using an electric furnace more cost-effective.
Another big advantage of electric furnaces is that they come at a lower upfront cost than their gas counterparts. They’re much easier to install because they don’t require ventilation, making them a perfect fit for smaller homes with limited space. These furnaces can be installed in a closet, basement, or small utility room with ease.
Electric furnaces have a usable lifespan of 20 to 30 years with proper care and upkeep. They require less maintenance than traditional furnaces because they have fewer moving components. This can lead to lower maintenance costs over their entire lifespan compared to the upkeep costs of a natural gas furnace. Even better, an electrical furnace operates without the unnecessarily loud roaring of a gas furnace as it ignites. This can be great for homeowners who are light sleepers or who don’t want to hear the loud sounds associated with gas furnaces.
Which Is the Best Heating System for Your Knoxville Home?
Choosing the best type of furnace for your Knoxville home requires considering your local energy costs, home setup, and your individual priorities and budget. Most of Knoxville experiences a moderate climate with lows in the upper 20s to low 30s. This means most homes don’t need extreme heat output to stay comfortably warm during the winter season.
However, from time to time, Knoxville experiences some nasty cold spells that can take a toll on your home heating system and comfort. Gas furnaces are a safe bet that will provide a consistent amount of heat during the worst winter weather conditions. If you have a more modern home with great insulation and air sealing, its minimal heat loss can make an electric furnace more feasible.
Another major factor to consider when comparing these two different furnaces is their input cost and energy availability. All homeowners have access to electricity to run electric furnaces. However, not all Knoxville homeowners have access to natural gas or have a gas hookup already at their home.
Adding a natural gas hookup to your property can be quite expensive, making an electric furnace a more cost-effective choice for budget-conscious homeowners. In many cases, homeowners will find that natural gas is a more budget-friendly energy source than electricity. If you already have a natural gas hookup at your home for other appliances, a natural gas furnace can be a cost-effective solution.
One final factor to consider is the overall size of your home. Many smaller homes, mobile homes, and condos are well-suited for electric furnaces. Their compact size and lower heating demands make electric a more feasible option. However, larger homes and older properties without modern-day insulation can likely benefit from a gas furnace. This simply comes down to the higher heat output of a gas furnace compared to an electric one during all weather conditions.
Contact Us Today To Schedule Heating Installation
865 HVAC provides reliable furnace installation services for the Knoxville, TN area. We can also assist with all your furnace replacement, repair, and maintenance needs. Call our office today to schedule your next consultation with one of our experienced heating technicians.
