The three most popular ways to heat your home are through forced hot air, forced hot water, and heated air not through ducts. These are accomplished through applications called a furnace, boiler, and heat pump, and we’ll discuss what separates each one.
A furnace is one of the most popular forms of home heat in new construction builds over the last 20 to 30 years. A furnace can be fueled by oil, propane, natural gas, or electricity and uses heating exchangers and blowers to heat air that is then pushed through ducts in the walls of your home. The ducts allow the heated air to travel throughout your home and enter into the rooms through registers in the floor and wall of the rooms. Furnaces are a great option for new construction since the ducts can be put into place before the drywall is put into place.
Furnaces allow for a wide range of additional attachments that can improve the quality of the air inside your home. You can add air conditioning for the hot summer months, improved air filtration, dehumidifiers to reduce humidity in the summer months or add moisture in the dry winter months with a humidifier.
A boiler heats up water, creating pressure in the system that is pushed through pipes in your home and is expelled through baseboards or radiators. Since it is limited to only heat applications, they were very popular prior to the invention of furnaces, since both need to be installed during initial construction.
Baseboards or radiators can be found against the wall near the floor in rooms throughout your home.
Heat pumps are a more recent form of home heating that evolved from Mini-split air conditioning. Using technology similar to furnaces, where cool air is sent over heated coils and then distributed right to the room. This is a great option for already constructed homes where additional heat is desired. Since heat pumps are derived from Mini-split Air Conditioners, they can provide excellent cooling during the warmer months.
