New Laws on Energy Efficiency Standards Encourage Upgrading Your Air Conditioner and Furnace (HVAC)

You might not know it, but something changed in 2006 that will affect the choice of products available to you when it comes time to replace your Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) equipment. Don't worry, this affect on the equipment available to you is a good thing. The U.S. government has mandated that the energy efficiency of all HVAC systems installed after January 23, 2006 must meet certain minimum benchmarks. The benchmarks referred to are the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) and Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE).

In the years prior to this mandate being enacted, many air conditioners only had a SEER of 10, and furnaces had AFUE percentages of as low as 50%. New air conditioners must now have a SEER of at least 13 and furnaces have to achieve an AFUE of 80% or more. That is an increase in efficiency of 30% from air conditioners that were 10 SEER, and an increase of 38% for a furnace that had an AFUE of 50%.

Now, the government is not going to make you go replace your old system to meet the new standard-it only applies to new HVAC installation. If you have one of these older, less efficient systems you may continue to operate it as long as you please, but why would you want to? Many of the systems available today are actually much more efficient than the government has mandated, giving you the potential of substantial savings on utility bills.

For an average home, the lower utility bills alone could save a household about $600 a year. But there is more-the IRS is providing tax incentives for homeowners who upgrade their home's energy efficiency to meet the government's requirements for the program. This means meeting higher benchmarks for energy efficiency, but these are easily attainable with the equipment available today.

There is something else to consider. It is going to become more expensive to service your older air conditioner. It most likely uses a CFC or HCFC refrigerant, and these have been essentially banned. In fact, after 2010 these will be highly restricted, and your HVAC service company will only be able to purchase these refrigerants at a premium. It will be very expensive to use these to service your old air conditioner. There are replacement refrigerants available, but they are incompatible with older systems and can only be used in newer systems designed for them. You do not want to be stuck in one hot Atlanta summer with an old, inefficient air conditioner that doesn't work and can't be serviced, do you?

Given potential utility savings and tax incentives, plus the issue of sheer serviceability, there is plenty of reason to install a newer, more environmentally friendly system. But, it's also the right thing to do. Heating and cooling amount to approximately 50% of a home's energy use, so by acting to minimize this slice of your energy use, you are taking action to reduce the size of your footprint on a heavily trampled planet.