My furnace runs less than your furnace. Are you using zones?

Like many of you, my house has (had) an old furnace that I swear was a rocket engine taking off when it started up!  Struggling with PG&E bills north of $600/mo in the winter, I was determined to change this consumption of cash and energy during my remodel.   (Granted the single pane windows and minimal insulation were also contributing factors.)

So the furnace was one of the first items to go as the house was remodeled.  I wrote earlier about Carrier furnaces, and their associated rebates.  I actually took advantage of that, and saved an additional $1,100 with that offer when I purchased an Infinity model for just south of $15,000 fully loaded, installed with all new duct work.    Anyway getting to the point here, my new Carrier furnace enables my house to have multiple ‘zones’ which enables me to save my energy consumption and stop the bleeding of dollars sent to PG&E each month.

What is a ‘zone’ you ask, and how does it work?  A ‘zone’ is an area of your house that you define with your heating/cooling installer.  A zone is heated (or cooled) to a certain temperature while leaving other ‘zones’ at a different temperature.  I went with two zones in my house.

One zone is the family/kitchen/dining living space, and the second zone is the sleeping area of the home.  What I have found is that during the daylight hours more time is spent in the first zone.  Temperature is set at appropriate levels while the family is in that area of the house, and the second zone is dialed down (off) when because nobody is there.  During the night, the situation is reversed.  The family living space is dialed down low, and the sleeping area is kept at a more modest temperature.   BEFORE this transformation, the rocketship was humming, and heating the entire residence!!!

I suggest taking a look at multiple zones with your next furnace purchase!  As I see the savings in my PG&E bill, I will let you know the improvement — but I can already feel the difference

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