Reznor High Efficiency Heating

 

Sept. 1997

High Efficiency Heating VS Conventional Heating

Two unit heaters can have Thermal Efficiency ratings that are almost identical, but one will be far more efficient than the other in actual use.

For example, a good quality, conventional gravity vented unit heater with a Thermal Efficiency of 77% is only a few percentage points less than a high efficiency, power vented Venturion ( model FE or BE ) with 80% Thermal Efficiency. From those ratings you might expect similar efficiency in actual use. But the Venturion can be 30% more efficient in actual use, and save as much as 50% in annual fuel costs.

That reality can only be shown when the units are compared for Seasonal Efficiency as well as Thermal Efficiency.

	Thermal Efficiency	Seasonal Efficiency
Conventional	77 %	64.1%
Venturion	80%	79%

A Venturion Series (FE or BE) costs less to install and less to operate.

Installation costs :

Consider this. Look at a 400,000 BTU input conventional ( gravity vented ) heater and a high efficiency model FE400 ( 400,000 BTU input ) heater. The conventional 400,000 BTU heater requires a 12" round flue size. The high efficiency FE400 requires a 6" round flue size. Check out the price difference in the fittings. Also generally you will additional fittings for the conventional heater. Basically, buy the time you install that conventional heater you will find that you spent 1/2 to 3/4 of the savings that you thought you saved on the purchase price of the heater just on the additional flue costs.

Operational Costs:

The high efficiency power vented models allow you to use longer horizontal vents, even through the sidewalls. Horizontal vents will increase your seasonal efficiency and increase your fuel savings even more.

	Seasonal Efficiency	Improvement over Conventional
Venturion with 5' Horizontal	79.84%	25%
Venturion with 10' Horizontal	80.6%	26%
Venturion with 20' Horizontal	82.2%	28%
Venturion with 30' Horizontal	83.8	31%

Before you buy or recommend any unit heater, remember these facts about real world seasonal efficiency. It could save you a fortune.

 

Where does a conventional heater fail in efficiency ??? Primarily when the unit is not running. Here's the reasons why.

• Because the flue is a lot lot larger there is increased losses due to wind effect on the vent cap.
• Because the flue is a lot larger and requires vertical height between the appliance and vent cap, there is increased losses simply by the vertical stack height.
• Because a relief air opening is required on conventional heaters, loss of room air BTU's simply go up through the roof.
  
  • Why spend a lot of money to heat the outside ????
    
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