If you’re doing a major renovation, planning to build a new house or considering a change to your home’s heating system, you need to know your basic options. If you are planning to purchase a home, the type of heating system may affect your decision.
Here are the basic types of heating systems available for your home renovation or upgrade:
Electric systems
Baseboard heaters
Baseboard heaters allow for individual room control and subsequently give you options for energy savings. Advantages include low initial cost, small footprint (no need for a furnace room) and individual room control. Disadvantages include a high heating bill in many locations.
Furnaces
Most people think of gas fired furnaces but electric furnaces are available for areas where electricity is cheap or other fuels are hard to come by. As with baseboards, the cost of energy may be higher depending on where you live. You lose the advantage of individual room control, but gain the possibility of lowering your home’s set point temperature with the push of a button. Since this is a central air system, you can integrate cooling and ventilation into one system.
Air-source heat pumps
For milder climates, air source heat pumps provide high efficiency heating for most of the year. The advantages of this system include integrated cooling, higher efficiency and the ability to do setback to reduce your overall energy consumption.
Fossil fuels
The three most common fuels used for heating are oil, natural gas and propane but kerosene, biofuels and wood are options for more remote locations.
Furnaces and boilers burn these fuels to produce warm air, hot water or steam which is distributed throughout the house. Fuel burning fireplaces are generally used for open spaces.
Because of the risky nature of burning fuels, there are multiple standards governing the storage and setup of these systems. Before deciding on the best system for your home, discuss these considerations in depth with a professional.
Renewables
As concern for the environment increases, more people are moving to cleaner, renewable sources of energy.
Geothermal systems provide both heating and cooling using buried pipes and water-source heat pumps to extract or deposit thermal energy to or from the earth.
Solar heating is typically done with solar collectors that heat an antifreeze mixture. The heat is then distributed throughout the home, either via water or air depending on the equipment used.
The options to heat your home are extensive. If you need to discuss an upgrade or new system, give us a call and we can help you make the right decision.
