Maintaining A High-Efficiency Gas Furnace = = —4 wir Wee brolac ENERGY BILLS MAKING YOU HOT UNDER THE COLLAR? If your furnace is average, its efficiency rating is about 80 percent. Highefficiency units can be as high as 96 percentefficient. (NAPSA)—The moreefficient your gas furnace is, the less likely you are to get hot under the collar when the utility bills start arriving. According to the editors of the new edition of “The Black & Decker™ Complete Photo Guide To Home Repair” (Creative Publishing international, $34.95), a high-efficiency gas furnace is defined as a furnace that’s at least 90 percent “efficient,” as determined by an annual fuel utilization efficiency (AFUE) rating. The AFUErating is given to every furnace based on its fuel use, electricity use and the fans used in the unit. Furnaces madeas late as 1992 can haveratings as low as 60 percent, which meansthat 60 percent of the gas intake is used to heat your home and the other 40 percent is wasted. A standard midefficiency unit sold today is about 80 percent, while high-efficiency units can be as high as 96 percent efficient. “The Photo Guide” goes on to instruct homeowners how to maintain their furnaces. For example, the air filters must be cleaned regularly—on a monthly basis—and disposable filters should be changed every three months. “The Complete Photo Guide To Home Repair” has more than 2,300 photos and covers virtually every homerepair challenge. New in this major revision to an alltime classic best-seller are chapters on choosing and using hand and powertools; diagnosing and correcting home safety and health problems; and creating and maintaining a home workshop. The book is available at bookstores across the country or by visiting www.creativepub.com.
