Standard furnaces are either on or off, only sending air through the ducts at one set speed. A variable-speed furnace blower, powered by an electronically commutated motor, will adjust its speed to real-time conditions in your home. This offers multiple benefits:
- It saves money. Variable-speed blowers are more efficient and use less energy because under normal conditions they operate at a lower, near continuous speed. This also means that they don’t need to work as hard to reheat a home when beginning each new cycle, as a standard furnace does.
- It improves air quality. Both the lower speed operation and increased time of operation allow the air filter to remove more contaminants.
- For the same reason, it can allow for improved humidity control when operating as an A/C blower in the summer.
Additionally, a variable-speed furnace blower works well with zoning. Zoning systems allow for your HVAC equipment to independently heat and cool separate parts of your home. Zoning systems work great for evening out temperature variances between different floors or parts of the house, or allowing occupants to set temperatures to their own preferences. These systems can also save money by allowing you to only heat and cool the rooms you are currently using.
A variable-speed furnace blower can make the installation of a zoning system simpler. Zoning systems are installed by adding additional thermostats to different areas of the house. These are connected to dampers in the ducts that allow certain sections of the ductwork to automatically be closed off when that portion of the house no longer needs additional heating or cooling. When not all the dampers are open, the remaining ducts may be over-pressurized, leading to excessive air velocities and noisy registers. Without a variable-speed furnace blower, this problem must be resolved by installing additional ductwork to take the excess pressure and dump it or reroute it back to the furnace. With a variable-speed furnace blower, this can be avoided since the airflow can be reduced when any dampers are closed.
For more information on variable-speed furnace blowers and zoning systems, please contact us at Ace Hardware Home Services. We’re a family-owned company that has been providing outstanding service and installation to the Dayton area since 1978.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Dayton, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about variable speed furnace blowers and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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