Heating Solutions

Forced air is the most common type of home heating system.

Furnaces may heat air using various fuel sources such as natural gas, propane, oil or electricity and then distribute the heated air through the house using ducts.

Although older furnace systems had efficiencies in the range of 56%–70%, modern conventional heating systems can achieve efficiencies as high as 98%, converting nearly all the fuel to useful heat for your home. Energy efficiency upgrades and a new high-efficiency heating system can often cut your fuel bills and your furnace’s pollution output in half.

Water heaters are familiar fixtures in most homes. They typically look like big metal cylinders, tall drums that are often consigned to a laundry room or basement. Newer styles have some interesting features, like losing the tank completely in favor of water-on-demand, but the old, reliable water heater design that’s most widely used in the U.S. today is really a pretty simple appliance; it’s basically a drum filled with water and equipped with a heating mechanism on the bottom or inside.

A water heater’s thermostat controls the temperature of the water inside the tank. Normally, you can set the temperature anywhere between 120 and 180 degrees Fahrenheit. The water temperature setting recommended by most manufacturers is between 120 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. This is hot enough to be efficient for household use, but not so hot that it can pose a scalding risk. If there are children living in your home, it’s wise to stay closer to the lower end of the range.

A boiler is an enclosed vessel that provides a means for combustion heat to be transferred into water until it becomes heated water.

Hot water boilers heat water and then water is pumped to the baseboard radiators or radiant floor systems. Old boilers have efficiency in the range of 60%–70%, but the newest models can achieve efficiencies as high as 98%, converting nearly all the fuel to useful heat for your home. Energy efficiency upgrades and a new high-efficiency heating system can often cut your fuel bills and your furnace’s pollution output in half.

Boilers can be made of cast-iron, steel, or copper heat exchangers. The wall-mount high efficiency condensing boiler is the design of choice for most residential applications.

Hot water heating systems have several benefits that aren’t often discussed. They have few moving parts, making them more reliable and durable if maintained than newer, more complicated heating systems. They also provide clean and dust-free heat, a huge plus for homeowners who react negatively to the dust and other allergens that can be stirred up by forced air and other modern heating systems. Finally, they fit the bill when it comes to staying true to older structures and historic homes.

The air handler is an important part of a heating and air conditioning system. Electrically operated, its job is to effectively circulate air throughout your home. Your central heating and cooling system consists of two main parts – an outdoor unit and an indoor unit, or air handler. When matched with a heat pump, it circulates both cool and hot air, depending on the season. Can also be matched with regular air conditioner for cooling and additionally installed electric heating element for heating.

Air handlers usually connect to duct work that distributes the conditioned air through the building.

In steam heating systems, a boiler heats water by means of a gas or oil-fired burner and turns it into steam. The steam travels through pipes to radiators or convectors, which give off heat and warm the room. As the steam cools, it condenses back into water, and returns to the boiler to be heated again.

Steam boilers operate at a higher temperature than hot water boilers, and are less efficient.

Boilers and radiators are not often installed in new homes, but many older residences still feature this type of heating system. Furthermore, because this type of heating works well in multi-residence situations and larger buildings, steam heating is still common in many apartment buildings, multi-family dwellings, and older business buildings.

Heat pumps and air conditioners operate in a very similar way. Heat pumps are typically used to pull heat out of the air or ground to heat a home or office building, but they can be reversed to cool a building.

One of the biggest advantages of a heat pump over a standard heating and air conditioning unit is that there’s no need to install separate systems to heat and cool your home. Heat pumps also work extremely efficiently, because they simply transfer heat, rather than burn fuel to create it. This makes them a little more green than a gas-burning furnace. Installation for this type of system typically consists of two parts: an indoor unit called an air handler and an outdoor unit similar to a central air conditioner, but referred to as a heat pump.

When it’s cold outside a heat pump extracts outside heat and transfers it inside. When it’s warm outside, it reverses directions and acts like an air conditioner, removing heat from your home.