Residential Furnace Blower Performance in U.S. Homes

Journal Article

Walker, Iain S.

Most heating (and cooling) systems in the U.S. use a centralized air handler or "furnace blower" to circulate conditioned air around the house. Although the space conditioning components themselves have become more efficient over the last couple of decades, residential forced air system blowers have not experienced similar improvement. The most common blowers have been shown by in-field testing to have efficiencies of only 10% to 15% corresponding to about 2 cfm (1 L/s) for every Watt of power consumption. These low efficiencies indicate that there is significant room for improvement of both electric motor and the aerodynamic performance of furnace blowers. Typical furnace blower power consumption in U.S. homes is about 500 to 700W and is increasing as larger new homes require larger heating and cooling systems. This is a significant power draw and represents 20 to 25% of the power consumed by a high efficiency air conditioner.

Air Infiltration Review

28

2006

Building Technology and Urban Systems Division, Residential Building Systems, Whole Building Systems Department

Building Technology and Urban Systems Division, BTUS Indoor Air Quality