Air Heating and Cooling
Is forced air heating right for you? Here are the pros and cons of forced air heating.
Forced air heating is a way a cooling or heating system distributes air throughout a home or a structure. The air is pushed through ducts and vents that are connected to a unit that heats or cools. This is in opposition to a central air system. The unit is almost always located outdoors and still uses ducts and vents. But this air is used in a closed loop, where heat is pulled or pushed from your home according to whether you’re using the heat or the air conditioning.
Forced-air heating. Designed to distribute heated air throughout a building, this system typically consists of a centrally located furnace and a network of air ducts. The furnace can use electricity, fuel oil, natural gas, propane, or (in rare cases) firewood as the heat source. When the indoor temperature drops below the temperature setting on your thermostat, the furnace turns on automatically. A blower forces heated air through supply ducts that terminate in heat registers located throughout the living space. At the same time, the blower draws a matching volume of cooler air through return ductwork, to be reheated at the furnace.
In hot weather, the same ductwork that delivers warm air to the living space can be used to distribute cool air from a central air conditioning system.
There are pros and cons to the method of forced air heating.
+ Heating Time
More than any other heating system, a forced air system pumps warm air through your home quickly.
The air is directly heated, and then promptly issued throughout your home using the system of ducts. This process takes little to no time, as opposed to others where air has to be distributed from a central system, or water has to be heated up.
+ Easy Installation Process
Whereas you might have to rip apart your floors to install something like a radiant heater, forced air heating can work with the systems you already have in place in your home.
+ Cost-Effective
For the efficiency of the heating that you’re getting, forced air heating is highly effective while maintaining a reasonable price.
+ Reliability
Heating systems that use electricity or heat pumps have a much higher probability of breaking down than forced air heating systems. The ducts are more durable with less working parts than these other systems, so you can count on them to stay working when you absolutely need to heat your home.
- Potential Health Risks
Because air is being forced throughout our homes, that means that dust, particles, and possibly mold are being carried through as well.
- Noise
No matter how state of the art your heating system is, it’s always going to produce some sort of noise. It can be very well tuned and very well built, but complete noise elimination is virtually impossible. You’re pushing air through ducts that have built up pressure, which produces a sound. Still, mostly any type of heating system is going to produce some sort of sound.
- Central Temperature Control
Forced air heating uses one thermostat to control the air in all the rooms. However, the heat might not be the same in every single room across the house.
- Leaky Ductwork
While your ducts are highly reliable, there is also potential in them for leaks. If your system is not designed well, as it wears you could start to lose some of the efficiency that you once enjoyed.
Geothermal systems are by far the most energy efficient HVAC systems. They use the consistent temperature of the earth's surface to heat and cool your home, rather than propane or fuel oil. In particular, an open loop geothermal system is one of the most efficient heating and cooling systems.
Is HVAC heating or cooling? HVAC stands for heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. This system is responsible for heating and cooling your home and includes products like furnaces, air conditioners, heat pumps as well as ductwork, thermostats and other home comfort controls.
HVAC stands for heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. This system is responsible for heating and cooling your home and includes products like furnaces, air conditioners, heat pumps as well as ductwork, thermostats and other home comfort controls.
HVAC stands for Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning. An HVAC unit is responsible for heating and cooling the air in your building, and provide ventilation to allow moisture to escape. Your HVAC unit includes the furnace, the air conditioning unit (if you have one), and any ducts or vent-work designed to release moisture. While all HVAC units do reference air conditioning units, not all air conditioning units are HVAC units.
AC or air conditioning, is the system designed to cool the air in your home. Some contractors or builders call an AC unit anything that conditions the air, hot or cold. To keep things simple: the system designed to cool the air is the AC unit, and the system designed to heat the air and push moisture out through the vents, is the HVAC unit.
What is a heat pump system? A heat pump system is basically an all-in-one unit that functions as both the heater and air conditioner in your home. Heat pumps are energy efficient since they work by transferring air from one space to another.
As a general rule, heating your home with a natural gas furnace is the cheapest way to keep warm through the winter months. Electricity is usually significantly more expensive than gas, so even the most efficient heaters will be a bigger drain on your pocketbook than a traditional furnace.
Ductless heat pumps, or mini split heat pumps, are an alternative to radiator or baseboard heating, as well as a replacement for window units for cooling. No duct work is needed. Instead, a head unit, or multiple head units, are mounted on an interior wall or ceiling, with an accompanying unit outside.