Baltimore Heating and Cooling Experts Offer Advice on Choosing a New Appliance
 | Considering buying a new furnace, boiler, central AC, heat pump, or other heating and cooling appliance? There are a few questions you should ask yourself before you do - and our Baltimore heating and cooling experts are here to help.
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Your heating and cooling system consumes more energy than any other system or appliance in your home. For that reason, there are so many benefits to replacing your current unit after its projected life expectancy is up. A new unit will run more efficiently, cutting back on the energy consumption in your home. Therefore, your monthly bills will be lowered and the unit will essentially pay for itself. Not only that, but a more efficient unit means a more comfortable home.
When shopping for a new unit, there are many factors to consider. Our Baltimore heating and air conditioning experts want to offer their advice.
What Type of Equipment do you Need?
There are many different types of heating and cooling equipment on the market. For heating solutions, you might need a furnace or a boiler; for cooling solutions, you may be looking for a central AC unit. For both heating and cooling, there are heat pumps and even geothermal heat pumps.
What's the Ideal Fuel Source?
Most heating and cooling equipment runs off of electricity, natural gas, propane, oil, or geothermal energy. It's important to know the costs of these different fuels in your area as well as what your home has access to when choosing what fuel source your new appliance should require. Each fuel source has different equipment options and levels of efficiency, so even if you've used one type of fuel for your old equipment, switching could prove to be cost and energy-efficient.
How Large of a Unit do you Need?
You never want to buy a heating and cooling appliance that's too small or too large for your home. A unit that's too large could short-cycle too often which could put stress on its parts and shorten its life. A unit that's too small will have to work overtime while still not providing you with enough warmth or cooling to meet your needs. Be sure to calculate, roughly, the size of your home and have a heat loss-heat gain analysis done in order to make an accurate decision.
What Kind of Warranty Suits You?
If you know that you want a manufacturer or dealer warranty with your unit, be sure to look into this prior to making the purchase. This is probably something that every buyer will aim to have with their new equipment, so simply ensure that you read the fine print before buying.
Do You Intend to Buy Accessories?
There are optional accessories that can supplement heating and cooling equipment available such as programmable thermostats, air cleaners, carbon monoxide detectors, and more. Make sure that if you intend to purchase any of these accessories, that they are compatible with the unit you purchase.
