The other day I was in a department store looking at their home improvement section.
I was mainly looking at landscape ideas and trying to find some landscaping supplies so I could start planting spring flowers and getting rid of the dead plants that did not make it through winter. While I was in an aisle I heard someone talking about their HVAC system. That reminded me that I needed to set an appointment with my local HVAC provider to have him take a look at it and I wanted to ask him a few questions about how energy-efficient my HVAC system actually is. If there was a way, I would like to upgrade my system to a more energy efficient system. When he arrived a week later I asked him how could I find out how energy-efficient it was. He told me that I could look for the SEER number on my air conditioner. The Seer number measures the cooling efficiency from the air conditioner or the heat pump. The higher the Seer number means the more energy efficient it is. I could also look at the AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency) percentage for gas and oil furnaces. This percentage tells you how much fuel is actually used to heat your home and how much is wasted. There is also a HSPF (Heating Seasonal Performance Factor) rate that measures the efficiency level of the heating mode in heat pumps. I never knew of these types of ratings before and I was very glad to hear about them so I could pay attention to it and make an energy difference in my home.