The reduction of the federal tax credit on high-efficiency doesn't mean you can't sell your top-of-the-line furnace any more. There are many reasons to own a great furnace beyond tax cuts and energy efficiency.

Everyone thinks they have to prove a payback within the time frame a customer will own the home to sell equipment these days. You're doing yourself a tremendous disservice by putting yourself in that frame of mind, because:

• The average family moves every seven years. Unless you're installing the new equipment within the first year or two they live in the home, you might not be able to show a payback during the amount of time they will own the home
• The homeowner may not even have been considering the purchase contingent upon your being able to prove a complete payback, but your raising the issue can stand in the way of closing the sale.

Rather than stating a specific time frame for a return on investment, I've gotten into the habit of stating, "It will pay for itself at least over the life of the equipment."

A 90+ furnace will pay for itself in utility savings over a reasonable period of time, but, due to its lower initial investment, so will an 80+ furnace. Basing your entire presentation on a 90+’s ability to offset the price difference between it and an 80+ furnace with utility savings alone can cause a homeowner to ignore all the other real benefits of 90+ furnaces. When you consider all the benefits 90+ furnaces provide in comfort, noise level and warranty, their additional efficiency is the least important reason to invest in one.

Your best furnace fits the particular needs and desires for certain types of customers, so your first step is to determine who is a candidate for a super high-efficiency furnace. Candidates for your best furnace are:

• Homeowners with a furnace located within their conditioned living area, such as a closet
• Homeowners with a noise problem
• Homeowners who want the quietest furnace possible
• Homeowners experiencing "temperature stratification" (it's cold near the floor and hot near the ceiling)
• Homeowners experiencing gross "temperature swings" (instead of having consistently comfortable temperatures before, during and after cycles, the house gets cold, the furnace kicks on, then it gets hot)
• Homeowners with a failed heat exchanger who are planning to keep their home
• Homeowners who are going to keep their home and want the lowest possible heating cost
• Homeowners with a furnace located within the heated space that are experiencing a "drafty" home
• Homeowners who are sensitive to the drying effects of forced air furnaces
• Homes where installing a double-walled venting system is not practical
• Homes where the only access to the furnace is via a bathroom or bedroom; both of which are code violations
• Homeowners concerned about the heat from the flue vent or where it poses a safety hazard.

Noise
When we started selling the new "80+" furnaces, one of the first things we learned was, don't tell the homeowner that their new furnace will be quieter than the old one. Furnaces with "in-shot," or venturi burners, and an inducer fan, are far noise than old furnaces with "ribbon" burners. The sealed combustion chamber in the super-high efficiency furnaces (using a "two-pipe" vent system) solves noise complaints. Make it a furnace with a variable-speed fan motor, and you've got one of the quietest forced-air home heating systems you can have.

Temperature Stratification and Swing
The variable-speed blowers of some super high-efficiency furnaces — especially those with variable capacity burners — greatly reduce, if not completely eliminate stratification because:

• The blower runs almost continuously, keeping the air circulating for more even temperatures
• The variable capacity burners prevent temperature swings by running at "low flame" almost continuously.

Additionally, in most furnaces, the variable-speed indoor blowers will also make the make home more comfortable during the air conditioning season.

Failed Heat Exchangers
Heat exchangers that have failed or are showing signs of wear are the primary reason homeowners invest in new furnaces.

Since most super high-efficiency furnaces come with a lifetime warranty on the heat exchanger, everyone who wants the lowest possible cost, and is planning to stay in their home, should choose one.

A statement I've made to homeowners experiencing heat exchanger problems on a builder model that had a 10-year heat exchanger warranty, has been, "If you already owned the furnace I'm going to install for you, we wouldn't be having this conversation now, because the component you're having trouble with would be replaced free of charge. The only thing you'd be paying for is the labor to install it."

This same comment works equally well, if not better, on homeowners with furnaces 30 years old or more. Replacement furnaces are expensive now, but can you imagine what they'll cost in 25 or 30 years? Imagine having a heat exchanger fail after 30 years of service and getting a new one free of charge! Investing in a new furnace with a lifetime heat exchanger warranty is the lowest cost alternative for the homeowners who are keeping their home.

Draftiness
What makes a home seem "drafty" in the winter? Most people will say it's the cracks in the home, but how do they make a home drafty? Does the wind blow right through them? It's possible in some homes, but not likely in most. In many cases, the culprit is their forced-air, fossil-fuel furnace.

Furnaces require approximately fifteen cubic feet of air to produce approximately 1,000 Btus of heat. That calculates to approximately 1,500 cubic feet of combustion air needed to run a 100,000 Btu furnace for one hour. When that 100,000 Btu furnace runs half the time over a 24-hour day, it draws approximately 18,000 cubic feet of frigid, dry, dirty air into the home for combustion. It also expels the same amount of air the customer has already paid to heat, filter, and humidify into the atmosphere. That's what causes drafty homes and a lot of comfort complaints. It's also why people always think they need a bigger furnace because the one they've got won't heat their home on the coldest days of the year. In a loose home with a lot of infiltration, a larger furnace would only make the problem worse, because it would draw even more cold, dry air into the home.