As of January 2005, every new home built by Cardel Homes includes a high-efficiency Lennox furnace installed and maintained by Central Aire Heating & Air Conditioning. “The industry standard is an 80 per cent mid-efficiency furnace, but we are working with 92 per cent high-efficiency with our product,” says Rick Heinz, an estimator with Central Aire.

“This means for every dollar you spend on heating your home, 92 cents of it actually goes towards doing so, and only eight cents of it goes up the chimney.” For home owners, this means an average annual savings of 12 per cent on their heating bills, he says.  Each new home will also include a programmable thermostat.

“This will save owners another six per cent on their heating bills,” says Heinz. “You don’t need your furnace to be pumping out heat when no one is home, or if everyone is asleep. “You can set your furnace to reduce the amount of heat it cranks out during the day or at night. Then, you can program the furnace to kick in 45 minutes before you wake up, or before you get home from work.”

On top of the five-year Lennox parts warranty, each Cardel/Central Aire furnace includes a unique maintenance package that Heinz says is the first of its kind in Calgary. “We will provide a three-year labor warranty, as well as a maintenance package,” says Heinz. “At 18 and 36 months, we will send a service technician to your home and do a tune up to the furnace. I don’t know of anyone else in the city doing this.”

Heinz says the first three years of a home are crucial for making necessary tweaks and adjustments to the heating system, and having a service technician visit free of charge will allow owners to ask questions about their system. The partnership between Cardel and Central Aire illustrates the builder’s commitment to being on the “cutting edge” of new home construction, says Cardel Homes sales manager Mike Selinger. “We know energy demands in our world have never been higher and everyone is responsible for doing their part,” he says. “We have a long-term relationship with Central Aire and we brainstormed how we could provide customers with energy savings without adding huge costs to the house. Customers are looking for builders who can do this.

“Saving energy is one of our corporate goals and we’re doing our part to contribute to overall energy savings in the marketplace.” For more information, visit a Cardel show home today, or go to http://www.cardelhomes.com.