The winters in southeast Michigan can be pretty brutal, and if you’re like most homeowners, you probably find yourself relying on your furnace through the cool weather and the cold. But because furnaces are designed to keep you warm during the coldest parts of the year, they aren’t at their best when the cool temperatures are far from the coldest. That’s why two-stage furnaces are ideal when the cooling season covers a wide range of temperatures.
A standard, single-stage furnace only really has two settings: on and off. It keeps a home at a thermostat-controlled temperature by warming the home to that temperature and then switching off until the house cools enough to need another boost. Because single-stage furnaces produce enough heat to handle the coldest temperatures, the heat they put out can have dramatic effects when the temperature is just a little chilly. Even if outdoor temperatures are in the 50s, while it’s in operation, the furnace produces the same amount of heat it would if the temperatures were below zero.
This means your home will heat up fast, but it also means a lot of cycling on and off for the furnace. That, in turn, means more temperature swings, and more intermittent noise.
Two-stage furnaces actually produce two levels of heat: one that’s designed to keep your home at a constant comfortable temperature during the cool weather, and one that’ll keep you warm no matter how far the temperature drops. This keeps your furnace from switching on and off excessively, which means that upgrading to a two-stage furnace nets you fewer temperature fluctuations, less noise fluctuation and an overall more efficient and effective heating process.
If you’d like to learn more about two-stage furnaces, or if you’re wondering whether a two-stage furnace is right for your home, don’t hesitate to contact us at Aladdin Heating & Cooling. We’re happy to help homeowners in Detroit and surrounding communities, including Birmingham, Utica, Rochester and Oxford, stay warm and comfortable through the fall and winter months.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Warren, Michigan about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about two-stage furnaces and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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