Furnace Heater

Furnace heater is a device that describes household heating systems and is also referred to as direct fired heater. Furnace heat energy is supplied by fuel combustion in an electric arc furnace. The furnace heater is one of the major appliances that are permanently installed in a household to provide heat to the interiors of your home. The heat energy transferred through intermediary fluid movement could be steam, air or hot water. The most common fuel that is being used in United States is natural gas and in some cases electrical resistance heating might be a source of heat in places where electricity cost is low.


The furnace heater has three categories of components like the heat exchanger, burner, and the vents. The control and the safety devices are the second category and the third is the blower unit for air movement. The heat originates in the burner and is drawn to the heat exchanger by induction. The heat exchanger design is key and this will allow the furnace to operate at 90%+ AFUE. The heat exchanger ignites the furnace and the natural gas fire in the furnace heater burns. Once the burners are engaged the heat exchanger gets hot and the furnace blower is turned on. Now forced air travels over the heat exchanger and this allows heat transfer to occur. This sends warm air through the ducts and heats the home.


A conventional furnace heater with about 60 to 80% AFUE releases the flue gases that go as waste through the flue pipe. The designers then decided to utilize this flue gas as it releases hot moisture. The free energy from the so called waste was thus captured. This led to some changes in the basic design of the furnace heater and a second heat exchanger was added that looked like a coil to capture the flue gas moisture and reuse this heat to make the appliance more efficient.


For several years there was little change in the furnace heater in terms of how it operated until recently when two-stage technology had emerged. The designers had realized that the furnace heater does not have to necessarily use high fire at all times to heat effectively as the weather outside keeps changing. The two-stage gas valve emerged which ignites a low fire on less cold winter days thus saving up to 25 to 35% on the gas consumption. When the weather outside becomes really cold then the furnace heater engages in high fire that ensures the appliance gives out the necessary heat to the home. This design of the furnace heater ensures that you save a lot of money and get all the needed warmth and comfort.