Comparing The Best Ways To Heat Your Home

Here in Colorado, a lot of homeowners don’t think much about how to heat their homes. If your home came with gas-forced heating and cooling, you may accept it as the best for your home. But it’s important to note that you do have choices.

HVAC stands for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning – it’s used to describe the overall climate control process for your home.

Yet how you achieve the best results can vary depending on your needs. Some homes use more than one system – are you finishing off a basement? It may be the perfect chance to add a new system that works even better for your situation. Here’s what’s possible.

Gas-forced heating and cooling

One of the most common HVAC systems in Colorado is gas-forced heating and cooling. This uses a furnace with a blower fan that pushes conditioned air through a series of ducts, delivering the air supply to each room in your home. Because of the powerful air supply, it’s an effective way to change the temperature inside any room quickly. Gas-forced air systems can be fueled in a variety of ways, including natural gas, liquid propane, oil, or electricity. They are powerful at removing dust and allergens that are airborne, provide an equally effective system for both heating and cooling, and are relatively inexpensive when compared with other systems. They do take up a considerable amount of space, requiring ductwork to flow through your home, registers in each room, and sizeable equipment both inside and outside of your home.

Radiant heating systems

Many modern homes are looking to in-floor radiant heating systems to help distribute heat in an efficient way. In-floor heating involves plastic water tubing installed in concrete slabs, attached to a wood floor. It’s quiet and, in general, efficient. It may take longer to get up to temperature, but it’s more consistent once it gets there. These can be great systems in specific rooms in your home. If you want your master bath to be warm on a cold morning, radiant heating may be the perfect choice.

Hot water baseboard radiator – another modern form of heating is a hot water baseboard system, also known as a hydronic system. These systems circulate water through a centralized boiler and run through a network of water pipes that help radiate the heat out into each room. Boilers can be fueled by natural gas, liquid propane, oil, or electricity. In some cases, you can even find them fueled by solar. They offer excellent energy efficiency and are some of the quietest systems on the market as they work without fans or blowers.

Heat pump – one of the newest heating and cooling technology is the heat pump. Heat pumps extract heat from the air, ground, or geothermally, to use the extracted heat source to condition the room. You’ll often hear these referred to as a mini-split, or ductless system. They use a relatively small outdoor compressor unit and one or more indoor air handlers, depending on where you want to add them into your home. They can be energy efficient, but do work better in milder climates. Still, they can be a great addition to bring in extra heat, especially in room additions.

What’s the most efficient way for you to heat and cool your home? If you’re thinking of installing a new HVAC system, the best place to start is by considering your options. One of our technicians would be happy to evaluate your home and make suggestions about the best way to keep your home conditioned adequately throughout the year.