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| Seasonal Efficiency |
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If you think of combustion efficiency or COP as the measure
of performance for an operating system, seasonal efficiency is an indicator of
how well your heating or air conditioning system performs over an entire season
of starts and stops.
Seasonal efficiency is a truer indicator. It takes into
account the energy that's lost whenever your system shuts off and in some cases,
energy used for fans, controls, etc.
In the vocabulary of the heating and air conditioning trade,
the efficiency of an air conditioner or heat pump in the cooling mode is shown
as its SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio); the heating performance
of heat pumps is expressed as HSPF (Heating Season Performance Factor);
and the heating efficiency of oil or gas furnaces is known as AFUE (Annual
Fuel Use Efficiency).
Your contractor may be able to improve seasonal efficiency
by downsizing your system, reducing flue losses or adjusting your controls.
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