Good Guys answering Homeowner’s questions

In this video we answer:

  • What type of heating/furnace system do I have in my home?
  • 80% or 90+% furnace – which is better?
  • How does humidity affect the home and Comfort?

Learn more on our Help Center: https://goodguysserviceprovider.com/category/hvac/

Welcome to another episode of Good Guys, answering questions for homeowners. We have Ryan, Steve and Jady (?) with us today.

What heating system do I have in the house?
So typically in houses in Indiana, there are several different types of furnaces systems in Indiana, but I will talk about 3 or 4 most common and then I will talk about not so common, systems but you will see it in Indiana. So, the first one is 80% efficient furnace, the easiest way to tell it is you have got an 80% of a typical metal flue coming out of the furnace, and for the 90% furnace, the way you can tell that there is a 90% gas furnace out there is 2-3 PVC (Plastic vent pipes) coming out of the furnace. The next most common heating and cooling will be Heat Pump and Air Handler and what you typically see there are no flues coming out of the unit and you will also know if your house is fully electric, typically you don’t have gas at the house and typically you will be running everything all-electric so Heat & air-handler in that type of setting. The next is a heating system not very common, they called Geo Thermal Units. A Geothermal will be typically set up like a Heat Pump and Air Handler but with sort of water lines coming out of the system. The next system is not very common but there are plenty of them in Indiana, that will be the boiler system, it’s not a forced-air system so the easiest way to kind of tell is a boiler but doesn’t have ductwork attach to it. If you are unsure this will typically have a pipe tube made of iron, copper connected to it and again doesn’t have ductwork attach to that system

As a technician does the type of heating system matter?
Typically As a technician it does not matter, but typically you will find 80% gas furnaces and typically the easiest ones to work on; have a base system just depending with not too many —-, they do the job but they are not just as efficient as some others like 80% furnaces (80% what that mean?), so basically when you put 100% of your gas in that furnace, you only use an 80% of that gas, the other 20% is going out of the flue, so with high efficiency gas furnaces it can go up to 97-98% efficiency (gas mileage), so you are loosing 2-3% of gas or heat that is not coming into the house; so if you are spending $100 in gas, $20 is coming out of the flue

Which heating system is best for a house?
Depends on what you have, if you have gas you will probably be using furnaces (90% is the best option). If you have electrical houses you will have other options

How does the humidity effect the home and comfort?
Depends on if we are talking about humidity in the summer or in the winter

Humidity in the winter: it’s a good thing, it can increase the comfort of your home and it can lower the utility bills. The houses that are more humid in the winter can definitely keep the house a little cooler because the humidity helps to set a warmer temperature.
Ways to detect if you have an excess of humidity on the house: static electricity on the carpets, dry skin, paint coming out of the walls, floor structure separated.

Humidity in the summer: Definitely is a no. I recommend to keep the houses at 78 degrees anything higher than that may be a hard time. There are some customers that buy a dehumidifier to remove the excess of humidity of the house.
Ways to detect if you have an excess of humidity on the house: you feel sticky, and clammy.