When faced with a decision, it’s always best for a homeowner to know their options. It seems like whether it’s choosing a stylish tile for your floor, deciding exactly where to put each piece of furniture, or selecting the correct heating system. Your choices matter greatly. This is why it’s always best to know every option. Even when it comes to your home heating. But, finalizing a decision without exploring every possible choice can leave you wondering if you made the correct one.
As a homeowner, feeling like your home heating choice isn’t up to par can lead to wasted money, lost time, and needless frustration. To make matters worse, finding the data necessary to make the right choice can cause a big headache. Not to mention knowing how to apply this data correctly to your situation is almost impossible. When it comes to knowing heating options, nobody wants to be left out in the cold.
Christian Brothers Air Conditioning Plumbing Electrical want every homeowner to know exactly what their options are with heating systems. We know how valuable information can be when it is accurate and easy enough to understand. This is why we’ve put together the ultimate basic guide describing each heating option for your home:
Fireplaces
We’ll start with the basics. Great for decoration and overall comfort, a fireplace fits any home perfectly. However, due to modern technological upgrading, fireplaces are not recommended as a primary heat source. Although great for family gatherings, you may want a more convenient source of warmth for your home.
Space Heaters
Electric space heaters are very convenient and easy to use. They move easily around the house due to their small size and light weight. Furthermore, they heat a small area very quickly to provide maximum comfort.
Being quartz infrared or oil filled most of the time, these heaters deliver heat converted by electricity. This may sound great, but it comes with a steep price. Space heaters are cheap to buy initially, but your electric bill will skyrocket if they are used too much.
If you were to use a 1,500 watt electric heater for an hour, your electricity cost would go up in cents by 50%. This isn’t the only reason why space heaters aren’t a valid recommendation. They can be a worrisome fire threat as well. Plus, they don’t heat the entire home. They only provide small areas with heat.
Boilers
Operating as both air and water heaters, boilers distribute heat by circulating warm water through radiators and other devices. These radiators are typically located in bedrooms and offices. When the water circulating into these devices eventually cools down, it streams into the boiler again. This reheating process ensures your boiler is running at top efficiency. Similarly to other types of heaters, a boilers heat source is usually natural gas or oil based heat.
Boilers are perfect if you choose to have radiant floor heating. If you have a steam boiler, the process is a tad different. This boiler creates steam which is carried into the home through ducts and vents. This type of boiler isn’t used very commonly any more due to the more convenient options of heating that are becoming more popular.
Regular boiler heating systems come with their own set of pros and cons. They are typically easier to install if you’re looking to put “zone” thermostats in your home. With zone thermostats, you’re able to control the temperature of a single room. This can be useful when it comes to managing the heat production in your home. However, the cost of boilers is substantially more than most other heat sources.
Heat Pumps
Normally described as a two way air conditioner, heat pumps can provide coolness to your home in the summer as well as heat for you in the winter. They do this by simply removing hot air from the home. Thanks to an electric device attached to the mechanism that ejects improper temperature air outside, this system is ideal if you want an option that works relatively similarly to central air. When it comes to heat pumps, you have a couple of different options.
The first option is an air source based heat pump. This option operates much like the previous paragraph explained. Cold air is taken from outside the home, charged by an electrical component, and pushed into the home. In the summer, warm air is removed from the home. The installation process for this is relatively similar to that of central air.
The other option is purchasing a geothermal heat pump. Geothermal heat pumps work by taking heat from underground and converting it into warm air. The expenses that come from installing and maintaining geothermal heat pumps are very high. Due to the high expenses, this heat pump is not a great recommendation.
Furnaces
Central heat furnaces heat most of the homes in the United States, and for a good reason. They are the number one recommendation for most homes because of their “forced warm air distribution system”. Their high recommendation also comes from their growing technological efficiency over the past thirty years. Furnaces create warm air by mixing it with burning oil. Pushing the air through the vents and ducts of the ventilation system, they are able to heat every part of the house. A fan propels the warm air from one part of the house to the other.
A furnace can also be completely controlled with the help of a thermostat, making them even more convenient than fireplaces, heat pumps, or electric heaters. Furnace efficiency can also be measured more accurately using the AFUE measurement. The higher the percentage calculated, the better efficiency at which the furnace runs. Furnaces are a number one recommendation when it comes to heating.
Call Us
If you have any questions regarding heating, electricity bills, or HVAC systems, give us a call! We can set you up with an HVAC technician who specializes in air conditiong, heating, and customer service. You can reach us at (623) 201-5066.
