Residential Heating Options
There are many options for heating your home on the market today. We recommend asking a Mich-Tech One heating specialist for the most energy efficient options for your home. Here are some of the more common home heating solutions:
Traditional Furnaces & Heating Systems
A furnace draws air from the house into a ductwork system, taking it to an area where it is warmed before being delivered back to living spaces. Newer furnaces use blowers to recirculate the warmed air. A furnace may be fueled with gas, electricity, oil, or even coal or wood.
- Gas and oil furnaces have a pilot light that warms a heat exchange unit, which in turn warms the air before it is circulated back through the house. These furnaces have a flue where exhaust gases vent to the outside.
- An electric furnace uses heating strips, or elements, to warm the air.
- A wood or coal furnace has a sealed firebox where the fuel is burned, and a heat exchanger where air is warmed before delivery.
- Metal vents that allow warmed air to escape from the system and into the house are usually found in the floors or on walls in living areas.
- The home's temperature is controlled by changing the settings on a thermostat, usually positioned on a wall at eye-level. The thermostat shows the current temperature of the room.
Electric Heat Pump
Heat pumps work by shuffling heat from one place to another. They also serve as air conditioners during warm weather.
- Heat pumps extract warmth from outdoor air, from ground or surface water, or from the earth. The air is warmed more by the system if necessary, then circulated through the house.
- You'll find metal vents and filters similar to those used for forced air furnaces. The thermostat may appear similar, but will also include controls for air conditioning.
- The outdoor unit usually states 'heat pump' on its label.
Radiant Baseboard Heat (Hydronic Heat)
Baseboard heaters are often visible as long, metal units with electrical elements inside. Each unit has its own control, which may be marked in increments from low-to-high, but will not show the room's current temperature. You might see baseboard heaters used as a home's sole source of heat, or for supplemental heat in cooler rooms or rooms that were difficult to outfit with ductwork. They are typically more expensive to operate than furnaces. Radiant Ceiling or Floor Heat Radiant systems warm objects in much the same way as the sun does. No blowers are used. Electric radiant elements are installed in floors or ceilings. Hydronic Heating is another type of radiant heat, where hot water flows through tubes under the floor or through units that resemble baseboard heaters. Hydronic heating systems include a boiler unit that heats the water and circulates the warm water through the system.