Top Furnace Repair Vaughan, Award-Winning Furnace Installation & Heating Services!

You may have to replace your furnace if any of the following conditions apply.

1. The furnace broke down, and you have had it for more than a decade. If the cost of repairs is not justifiable, replacing the furnace is the best way forward.

2. Your furnace was red-tagged by a licensed gas fitter technician.

Being red-tagged as ‘Type A’ means that you can no longer use the furnace. The gas technician will have deemed the furnace unsafe and will go ahead and shut off the gas meter to the furnace. However, bearing in mind there have been many cases where scare tactics have been used to force homeowners to replace their HVAC, you must always seek a second opinion before you proceed with the replacement. Your HVAC may still have many good years left.

This does not, however, mean that you can’t get a legitimate Red Tag for Ontario gas code non-compliant issues. Weigh the option of replacing and repairing before you proceed.

The worst thing is you may get the Red Tag at the worst possible time. This could be a few weeks before winter. If this happens, the worst mistake you can make is rushing through the process when repairing or buying a new furnace. You have to be proactive and seek expert help if you are not sure you can make the best choice on a furnace.

3. The furnace is too old

Heating systems have a lifespan of 15 to 25 years. You need to replace your furnace at least once every 20 years. A new high-efficiency furnace will help you avoid high operating costs as well as major repairs.

4. Your furnace repair and operating costs are going up

If you have noticed your heating costs have been skyrocketing, now is the time to contact a reputable HVAC company to help replace your old furnace.

Are you in Vaughan, and any of the aforementioned points apply to you? If yes, you need to be proactive and start shopping for a new furnace. Never take shortcuts when buying a furnace. If you are uncertain of what needs to be done, work with an experienced professional to help make informed choices. Air Makers is always happy to help you out.

The fuel your furnace uses determines how much you end up paying each month in utility bills. Of late, natural gas has proven to be the most economical option in Vaughan. The cost of natural gas went from 35c in April 2006 to 9c per cubic meter by July 2012. You can take a look at the historical natural gas rates here. For the current gas prices, click here.

As a result of the low costs of natural gas, more and more Vaughan residents are replacing their furnaces with those that use natural gas. Gas distribution companies have also noticed the trend and are working harder to supply homes with natural gas and gas meters. We get numerous calls from people who want to replace their non-natural gas furnaces with natural gas furnaces. There are also so many great incentives available for switching to natural gas fuel. They include gift cards, cash incentives and free installation.

Now is without a doubt a great time to switch to a natural gas furnace. The switch will not only help you take advantage of incentives but also help you lower your utility bills.

While a natural gas furnace will bring your heating costs down, you have to remember that furnaces have components that use electricity. These include the blower motor. When buying a natural gas furnace, you have to pay attention to the hydro costs you will incur from running the installed blower motor.

So far, you understand the importance of replacing your furnace with one that has high efficiency. The point we haven’t covered is the fact that not every furnace will be the right size for your home. The ideal furnace needs to be big enough for your home.

To know the furnace that will be a good fit for your home, you must start by looking at the energy output required to keep your home comfortable during the harshest winter. For information on sizing, you can read this furnace and A/C sizing guide. The guide will help you pick the right size furnace for your home. It also looks at the factors you must consider when selecting a furnace.

It is important to have a furnace that is neither too small nor too big for your home. Under- or over-sizing a furnace will only lead to problems. Needless to say, most homes in Canada have oversized furnaces. You can use a sizing guide to know the size of the furnace that will be ideal based on the size and age of your home.

To find the right size furnace, you have to understand the heat output that is required to heat your home. Next, you have to review several furnace makes and models until you find the one that fits your budget. It is important to always remember that matching your budget when purchasing a furnace doesn’t mean focusing only on the initial cost of buying the furnace. You have to look further than that. Look at the value the furnace will bring during operation. Buying a furnace should be considered an investment. How much do you stand to earn back in the next five years?

To understand this point better, we have to look at a scenario. You have two furnaces. One goes for $2,000, and the other costs $2,400. While it is a tad expensive, the $2,400 furnace will help you save $150 annually in heating. This means the furnace has a payback period of $400/$150 = 2.7 years. A payback that helps you earn your initial investment in 5 years is always a smart investment. If you went for the $2,400 furnace, you would be able to recover the extra $400 you spent on it within 2 years, 8 to 9 months. Every year after that, you will continue saving a whopping $150. This makes the $2,400 furnace a better investment than the $2,000 furnace.

However, if with the $2,400 you only save $50 when compared to the $2,000 furnace, the payback period will be 10 years. You will be better off going for the $2,000 furnace at this point.

When shopping for a furnace, always check to see which one will be the most economical. The furnace must also meet your comfort needs.

There are several features you need to look at when shopping for a furnace. The key factors that influence the operational costs of a high-efficiency gas furnace include the following:

• AFUE rating
• Type of inducer motor the furnace uses
• Type of blower motor installed
• Eligibility to rebates on your preferred furnace

Performing a cost analysis is a must. This will help you ensure that the decision you are making is based on a reasonable perspective.

While it is not easy to put a price on comfort, you have to know the features and functionalities your furnace must have. The main ones include:

• ECM blower motor
• ECM inducer motor
• Number of heating stages

Before you install any high-efficiency furnace, you must also consider:

• The available rebates and
• The availability of labour and parts warranty

Are you in Vaughan? If yes, reach us to request our pricing on Goodman furnaces. Carrier and Lennox limit us from providing their prices online. Get in touch with us for a free, no-obligation in-home estimate.

AFUE- Its meaning and significance

Although the inducer motor and blower motor use electricity, our focus will be on the fuel used in a furnace in this section. The fuel here is natural gas.

AFUE is short for Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency. The rating is measured in percentage from zero to 100 percent. In the past, a furnace was considered to be highly efficient if it had an AFUE rating of 90%. This went up to 92%. According to the Canadian government’s regulations, a furnace is high-efficiency if its AFUE rating is 94%.

If you don’t know the exact AFUE rating of your furnace, you can calculate it using the information that is already available on a sticker on your furnace. AFUE is the OUTPUT heating power/INPUT heating power. You can find both the Input and Output values on the furnace.

It is essential to keep in mind that the AFUE of a furnace declines with age. If your furnace is more than 20 years old, the AFUE will most likely be 70%. The furnace quality and how it has been cared for also affect the AFUE. A furnace that is 25 years old is rated at 70%, but it’s most likely performing at 60%.

To better understand what AFUE rating means, we have to look at it in terms of money spent. If your furnace has an AFUE rating of 60%, it means that for each dollar you spend on heating, 60 cents go to heating while 40 cents go to waste. Replacing this old furnace with a modern one like the Infinity Carrier Model 59MN7A with an AFUE rating of 98.5% means wasting only 1.5 cents for every dollar spent. As you may have already realized, the higher the AFUE rating is, the more savings you will have.

If you are in Vaughan, you probably own a single-stage furnace. This is the most common furnace in homes. What you may be wondering is why you may need to move to a multi-stage furnace? What are the benefits?

A single-stage furnace allows full gas flow to the burner and heat exchanger when the furnace is switched on. On the other hand, a multi-stage furnace is equipped with a valve that regulates the flow of gas to the burner and heat exchanger.

In a 2-stage operation, a valve regulates the flow of gas at about 60%. If the furnace doesn’t increase temperatures to the desired level within 10 to 16 minutes, the valve will open at 100%, allowing full gas flow. A 3-stage furnace uses the same concept only that it has three gas flow stages: 40%, 60% and 100%. The ability to regulate the flow of gas makes a 3-stage furnace a modulating furnace. Even so, the 3-stage operation doesn’t make a furnace a true modulating furnace.

If you need a true modulating furnace, you need to focus on those with more than 40 settings on their gas valve. The valve increases at tiny increments from 30% all the way to 100%. The Carrier’s INFINITY 98 is an example of a true modulating furnace. This is also the only furnace on the market that modulates down.

To understand the benefits of having a modulating furnace, we have to consider a scenario. Imagine your thermostat is set at 20C, and you feel cold, so you set the thermostat at 21C. When using a single-stage furnace, the furnace will light up, and the gas valve will open fully. The gas will operate fully to increase the temperatures by 1C. The problem with this operation is that temperatures in the room will start getting hot, and the thermostat may go all the way up to 23C by the time the furnace is switching off. The temperatures will then drop to 21C. When they fall below 21C, the furnace will light up, and the process will continue. The lack of control leads to significant temperature fluctuations.

You have probably noticed these fluctuations if your home uses a single-stage furnace. The issue can be solved by installing a multi-stage furnace. These furnaces increase temperatures gradually, which eliminates the issue of fluctuations.

Multi-stage furnaces offer better control. When they are switched on, they will increase the temperatures gradually. If only a 1C needs to be increased, a multi-stage gas valve doesn’t need to open wider than 60%. If the temperatures have to be increased by more degrees, the gas valve will open wider if the desired temperatures are not reached within a certain time.

Multi-stage furnaces offer two main benefits:

• Better temperature control: You achieve gradual temperature change. This helps eliminate temperature fluctuations.
• The furnace is quieter, meaning: The more gas flows into the burner, the more pressure will be experienced, and more vibrations will be noticed. More vibrations lead to more noise. A lower gas flow rate equals lower sound.

Call us now to find out more about the unique technology in the Carrier multi-stage furnace. The patented technology is called adaptive logic.

Common Myth About the Number of Heating Stages and Energy Saving

Having more heating stages does not make a furnace more efficient or use less gas. To heat a house, you still need the same amount of energy. Having a multi-stage furnace simply means you will use the same amount of gas as a single-stage furnace only for a longer period. The fuel consumption of a true-modulating furnace is the same as that of a single-stage furnace.

Furnace blowers can be placed in three categories:

• PSC Blowers – Single Speed

The motor on this blower uses AC electricity. As a result of using the city electricity in AC form, these motors operate at the same frequency. They are, however, about 30% more efficient than motors from 20 years ago. The main drawback is they are loud and don’t do anything to maximize comfort. All the same, they do what they are meant to – distribute heat.

• ECM X13 – Multi-speed Motors

ECM stands for Electronically Commutated Motors. With the ECM motor, AC electricity is usually converted to DC power. When compared with AC power, DC power offers the advantage of having a lower but efficient power consumption. DC also makes it easy to modify the motor speeds. This means that with the ECM X13 motors, you will be able to vary the speeds to up to 4 speed settings. ECM X13 is more efficient than the PSC single-speed blower. The motor is also much quieter and is developed to work on lower speed stages and lower heating.

• ECM – True Variable Speed

If you are looking for true-variable motors, this is the motor to go with. You get more speed options. It is also more efficient than ECM X13. This is the motor in the Carrier INFINITY furnace model.

Operational Cost Comparison Between the Three Blower Motors

For you to better understand the difference between the motors, we have to consider their operation in terms of cost. Here is a scenario. If your older blower runs 24/7 for a year, you will incur a cost of $600 in hydro bills. If you install a modern single-speed blower, your cost will go down to $400. If you go for the ECM X13 blower motor, the costs will go further down to $200. With the true variable ECM, your hydro costs will go to $40.

Also referred to as ventor motors, the inducer motors can be ECMs. The inducer motors are what drive burnt flue gas out of the furnace. With an ECM inducer, you can expect your furnace to be a lot quieter as well as more efficient.

Take a look at the Carrier COMFORTHEST Technology to better grasp the ECM motors in Carrier Furnaces. You will also learn how they improve cold and hot spots and deliver a quieter operation.

When making a huge purchase, getting a warranty cover will give you great peace of mind. Manufacturers offer extended warranty options, with the 10-year parts warranty being the norm. When working with an HVAC company, you need to ask for a labour warranty and ensure it is included in the contract. Equipment often lacks factory labour warranty, thus the reason you need to request for labour warranty. Labour warranties last between one to two years.

While getting warranties that last long is the goal, you must be wary of 5 to 10-year labour warranty. If such a warranty is offered, there should be measures to make sure there is proper furnace maintenance being done. A labour warranty of 5 to 10 years with no obligations in respect to maintenance is a red flag. You also need to read and understand the fine prints to know the conditions of the provided extended labour warranty.

Knowing where the warranty cover is coming from is important. Is the warranty being offered by the manufacturer or the HVAC company? Manufacturer warranties are considered to be the most credible. You must, however, remember that manufacturer labour warranties always attract an extra charge which has to be paid before the unit is installed.

Never forget to ask if there is any warranty on Heat Exchangers. The common practice is a lifetime factory parts warranty on primary and secondary heat exchangers.

Air Makers offers basic warranty packages. Our packages come with the following:

• 10-years factory parts warranty
• Lifetime parts warranty for primary and secondary Heat Exchangers from manufacturers
• 10-year labour warranty from Air Makers Inc. Labor warranty that covers more than two years attracts chargeable annual maintenance which is charged on the third year. The annual fee is $80.

Ontario Power Authority rebate is the main rebate. The rebate is offered by HVAC companies that are members of the HRAI. With this, you will get $250 if you replace your old furnace with a high-efficiency one that has an ECM motor.

The answer is yes. Installing a fire furnace will not put your household at risk. These furnaces have been around since time immemorial. They go through rigorous testing to ensure they don’t have any flaws that may be hazardous now or later. In addition to that, modern-day fire furnaces are equipped with a system that shuts down when no flame is burning it off. All in all, it is always wise to take precautions even when using the safest furnaces in the market. With a fire furnace, you are advised to have a fire extinguisher close by as well as contacts to an HVAC company in case of emergencies.

For years, Air Makers has made a name for itself for being the most trusted source for affordable and high-quality heating and cooling installations in Vaughan and surrounding areas. We have an impeccable reputation when it comes to the repair and installation of furnaces. We work with both residential and commercial clients.

We have won numerous awards year after year since 2013. We are also happy to be the number one HVAC contractor in Vaughan in terms of the total number of heating and cooling equipment we have installed starting 2013.

At least once annually, you need to clean and get your furnace inspected properly. To clean the furnace, turn it off, wait for it to cool down, then use a brush and vacuum to clear dust and debris from the logs. There are special furnace glass cleaners you can buy in the stores. Use a wet cloth to wipe clean the insides of your furnace.