Heating is crucial during the winter months when the temperature can dip below zero. However, it can be very expensive and consume up to half of your energy budget. This makes it important to consider the efficiency of your heating solution if you want to keep these bills low. A highly efficient system will consume less energy for the same level of heating. Provided there are numerous home heating solutions, which of them are highly efficient?
Furnaces
Furnaces are widely considered to be the most efficient home heating solution. They use fuel or electricity to heat the air using a heat exchanger. This heated air is then distributed throughout the house using ducts and a fan. Modern furnaces are highly affordable, especially gas furnaces.
If you live in an older home, you likely have a wood furnace in your home. These older furnaces are great to have, but they are not as efficient as modern ones. These newer models have features and technologies meant to increase their efficiency.
Heat Recovery Systems
It takes energy to move air into and out of a home in addition to heating it as it comes in. A heat exchange system combines heating filtration and expulsion in the same system. As air moves out of the home, the heat it contains is extracted and used to heat incoming air. This makes heat exchange systems very efficient because they do two cycles (venting and bringing air in) with the energy it takes to do one.
Different heat recovery systems have different efficiencies, with some having efficiency as high as 80%. You can get different types of heat recovery systems through retailers like BPC Ventilation which sells systems for domestic and commercial applications.
Heat Pumps
Heating pumps consist of a heating and air conditioning system as part of one larger unit. When the temperature is high, a heat pump will take air from the home, pass it over a refrigerant to remove heat from it and return it into the room as colder air. When it is cold, it takes air from the house, heats it, and then returns it as warm air. These systems do not take any air from the outside.
The benefits of installing a heat pump are quiet operation and great air filtration. There are three types of heat pumps – geothermal, split duct and air source pumps – and each is priced differently depending on the size, type and efficiency.
Boilers
Boilers are still very popular around the world. They heat water that is held in a tank and then distribute it to radiators through pipes. The radiators then heat the rooms and spaces they are in.
Natural gas boilers are very efficient, routinely beating furnaces for this spot. Electric and oil boilers are less common, but they are also available from reputable retailers. Their main downside is that they can take up a lot more space than the other solutions we have discussed above.
Efficiency is a measure of the ability of a heating system to convert the energy it gets into heat. The better a system does this, the more efficient it is. There are different solutions to consider here, but furnaces, heat exchange systems and boilers are the options you should be looking into as they are highly efficient.