Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Heating Systems: How to Choose

By Steve Atkins

Having a proper heating and cooling system is critical for living comfortably in your home. Fortunately for you, there are many different types of heating and cooling systems to choose one.We will look at the different systems in the following article.

One of the most popular heating systems is forced air heating.This system works by using a furnace to heat the air which is then "forced" through ducts in your house. This is a simple system that works well.

However, this system does have it's problems.Since vents are used to distribute the air in the room, you don't always get even heat. The area near the vent might be warm, but far away would be colder.

In floor radiant heat offers a solution to this problem.To make this work, a boiler heats water. This water is then pumped through pipes that sit underneath your floor.This heat rises upwards from the floor, meaning the whole room is covered.

Another advantage of this is that there are no ducts to collect dust. Radiant heating is great for those with allergies. It comes in two major forms, electric and hydronic.

Electric radiant floor heating works like an electric blanket under your floor. Hydronic radiant floor heating works as described above. Both have their pros and cons.Electric systems install more easily, but are less efficient.

There are other types of radiant heating systems, but I wanted to focus on the radiant systems for this article since they offer such promise. There are also solar heating systems as well, for a greener approach.

Now you should have an idea about how to choose between a radiant and a forced air style heating system. There are clear differences in cost between the system types, so you'll have to decide whether or not the functional difference is worth it for you.

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