From Energy Star .gov Data

Utility Usage

• Heating 29%
• Cooling 17%
• Water Heating 14%

That totals 60% of total home utility usage.
Save up to half or more on your natural gas, electric and/or propane utility bills by upgrading your old heating and cooling systems. Be comfortable and safe in your home.

$1500 / %30 Federal Tax Credits on High Efficiency Installs.

When is it time to replace? (from Energystar.gov)

Carbon Monoxide (CO) Poisoning and symptoms:

High Levels: Can kill humans and animals in minutes.

• " Because it is impossible to see, taste or smell the toxic fumes, CO can kill you before you are aware it is in your home." http://www.epa.gov/iaq/co.html

Medium Levels: Symptoms are similar to other ailments.

• "At moderate levels, you or your family can get severe headaches, become dizzy, mentally confused, nauseated, or faint."

Annual Maintenance/ Clean & Check/ Tune-up

Most people don’t realize that their furnace runs as much as 3,000 hours per year. To put that in some perspective if you were driving a car the same amount of hours at 60 miles an hour you would travel 180,000 miles in a single year. Given that information you wouldn’t go without a tune-up right? You wouldn’t and neither should your heating and cooling system. Yearly preventative maintenance can help reduce utility costs and may help prevent costly repairs in the future.

Here we have posted information and guidelines from energystar.gov on when to repair, or when to consider replacing your homes heating and or cooling system, along with a helpful chart. We have also provided links to the NATE annual savings calculator and HVAC operational cost calculator to help consumers calculate their return on investment when upgrading equipment. Generally speaking heating and cooling quipment loses about one percent of efficiency per year.