Types of Heating Systems

Central Heat
Furnaces
The majority of North American households depend on a central furnace to provide
heat. A furnace works by blowing heated air through ducts that deliver the warm air to
rooms throughout the house via air registers or grills. This type of heating system is
called a ducted warm-air or forced warm-air distribution system. It can be powered by
electricity, natural gas, or fuel oil.

Inside a gas- or oil-fired furnace, the fuel is mixed with air and burned. The flames heat
a metal heat exchanger where the heat is transferred to air. Air is pushed through the
heat exchanger by the “air handler’s” furnace fan and then forced through the ductwork
downstream of the heat exchanger. At the furnace, combustion products are vented out
of the building through a flue pipe. Older “atmospheric” furnaces vented directly to the
atmosphere, and wasted about 30% of the fuel energy just to keep the exhaust hot
enough to safely rise through the chimney. Current minimum-efficiency furnaces reduce
this waste substantially by using an “inducer” fan to pull the exhaust gases through the
heat exchanger and induce draft in the chimney. “Condensing” furnaces are designed
to reclaim much of this escaping heat by cooling exhaust gases well below 140°F, where
water vapor in the exhaust condenses into water. This is the primary feature of a high-
efficiency furnace (or boiler). These typically vent through a sidewall with a plastic pipe.
New furnace standards are currently under development by the U.S. Department of
Energy, and are due to be finalized in the spring of 2016. The current furnace standards
have not been updated since 1987.

Heating system controls regulate when the various components of the heating system
turn on and off. The most important control from your standpoint is the thermostat,
which turns the system — or at least the distribution system — on and off to keep you
comfortable. A typical forced air system will have a single thermostat. But, there are
other internal controls in a heating system, such as “high limit” switches that are part of
an invisible but critical set of safety controls.
 The best gas furnaces and boilers today have efficiencies over 90%

The efficiency of a fossil-fuel furnace or boiler is a measure of the amount of useful heat
produced per unit of input energy (fuel). Combustion efficiency is the simplest measure;
it is just the system’s efficiency while it is running. Combustion efficiency is like the
miles per gallon your car gets cruising along at 55 miles per hour on the highway.

In the U.S., furnace efficiency is regulated by minimum AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization
Efficiency). AFUE estimates seasonal efficiency, averaging peak and part-load situations.
AFUE accounts for start-up, cool-down, and other operating losses that occur in real
operating conditions, and includes an estimate of electricity used by the air handler,
inducer fan, and controls. AFUE is like your car mileage between fill-ups, including both
highway driving and stop-and-go traffic. The higher the AFUE, the more efficient the
furnace or boiler.

Boilers
Boilers are special-purpose water heaters. While furnaces carry heat in warm air, boiler
systems distribute the heat in hot water, which gives up heat as it passes through
radiators or other devices in rooms throughout the house. The cooler water then returns
to the boiler to be reheated. Hot water systems are often called hydronic systems.
Residential boilers generally use natural gas or heating oil for fuel.

In steam boilers, which are much less common in homes today, the water is boiled and
steam carries heat through the house, condensing to water in the radiators as it cools.
Oil and natural gas are commonly used.
Instead of a fan and duct system, a boiler uses a pump to circulate hot water through
pipes to radiators. Some hot water systems circulate water through plastic tubing in the
floor, a system called radiant floor heating (see “State of the Art Heating”). Important
boiler controls include thermostats, aquastats, and valves that regulate circulation and
water temperature. Although the cost is not trivial, it is generally much easier to install
“zone” thermostats and controls for individual rooms with a hydronic system than with
forced air. Some controls are standard features in new boilers, while others can be
added on to save energy (see the “Modifications by Heating System Technicians”
section on the heating maintenance page).

As with furnaces, condensing gas-fired boilers are relatively common, and significantly
more efficient than non-condensing boilers (unless very sophisticated controls are
employed). Oil-fired condensing boilers are uncommon in the U.S. for several reasons
related to lower latent heat potential, and potential for greater fouling with conventional
fuel oil.

Heat Pumps
Heat pumps are just two-way air conditioners (see detailed description in the cooling
systems section). During the summer, an air conditioner works by moving heat from the
relatively cool indoors to the relatively warm outside. In winter, the heat pump reverses
this trick, scavenging heat from the cold outdoors with the help of an electrical system,
and discharging that heat inside the house. Almost all heat pumps use forced warm-air
delivery systems to move heated air throughout the house.
 A ground-source heat pump heats and cools in any climate by exchanging heat
with the ground, which has a more constant temperature.

There are two relatively common types of heat pumps. Air-source heat pumps use the
outside air as the heat source in winter and heat sink in summer. Ground-source (also
called geothermal, GeoExchange, or GX) heat pumps get their heat from underground,
where temperatures are more constant year-round. Air-source heat pumps are far more
common than ground-source heat pumps because they are cheaper and easier to
install. Ground-source heat pumps, however, are much more efficient, and are
frequently chosen by consumers who plan to remain in the same house for a long time,
or have a strong desire to live more sustainably. How to determine whether a heat
pump makes sense in your climate is discussed further under “Fuel Options.”

Whereas an air-source heat pump is installed much like a central air conditioner,
ground-source heat pumps require that a “loop” be buried in the ground, usually in
long, shallow (3–6' deep) trenches or in one or more vertical boreholes. The particular
method used will depend on the experience of the installer, the size of your lot, the
subsoil, and the landscape. Alternatively, some systems draw in groundwater and pass
it through the heat exchanger instead of using a refrigerant. The groundwater is then
returned to the aquifer.

Because electricity in a heat pump is used to move heat rather than to generate it, the
heat pump can deliver more energy than it consumes. The ratio of delivered heating
energy to consumed energy is called the coefficient of performance, or COP, with typical
values ranging from 1.5 to 3.5. This is a “steady-state” measure and not directly
comparable to the heating season performance factor (HSPF), a seasonal measure
mandated for rating the heating efficiency of air-source heat pumps. Converting
between the measures is not straightforward, but ground-source units are generally
more efficient than air-source heat pumps.

Direct Heat
Gas-Fired Space Heaters
In some areas, gas-fired direct heating equipment is popular. This includes wall-
mounted, free-standing, and floor furnaces, all characterized by their lack of ductwork
and relatively small heat output. Because they lack ducts, they are most useful for
warming a single room. If heating several rooms is required, either the doors between
rooms must be left open or another heating method is necessary. Better models use
“sealed combustion air” systems, with pipes installed through the wall to both provide
combustion air and carry off the combustion products. These units can provide
acceptable performance, particularly for cabins and other buildings where large
temperature differences between bedrooms and main rooms are acceptable. The
models can be fired with natural gas or propane, and some burn kerosene.

Unvented Gas-Fired Heaters: A Bad Idea

Gas or kerosene space heaters that do not have an exhaust vent have been sold for
decades, but we strongly discourage their use for health and safety reasons. Known as
“vent-free” gas heating appliances by manufacturers, they include wall-mounted and
free-standing heaters as well as open-flame gas fireplaces with ceramic logs that are
not actually connected to a chimney. Manufacturers claim that because the products’
combustion efficiency is very high, they are safe for building occupants. However, this
claim is only valid if you keep a nearby window open for adequate fresh air— which
defeats the purpose of supplemental heat. Dangers include exposure to combustion by-
products, as discussed in Ventilation, and oxygen depletion (these heaters must be
equipped with oxygen depletion sensors). Because of these hazards, at least five states
(California, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Montana, and Alaska) prohibit their use in
homes, and many cities in the United States and Canada have banned them as well.

Electric Space Heaters

Portable (plug-in) electric heaters are inexpensive to buy, but costly to use. These
resistive heaters include “oil-filled” and “quartz-infrared” heaters. They convert electric
current from the wall socket directly into heat, like a toaster or clothes iron. As
explained further under “Selecting a New System,” it takes a lot of electricity to deliver
the same amount of useful heat that natural gas or oil can provide onsite. A 1,500- watt
plug-in heater will use almost the entire capacity of a 15-amp branch circuit; thus,
adding much additional load will trip the circuit breaker or blow the fuse. The cost to
operate a 1,500-watt unit for an hour is simple to compute: it is 1.5 times your
electricity cost in cents per kilowatt-hour. At national average rates—12¢ kWh for
electricity— that heater would cost 18¢ per hour to run—and quickly cost more than its
purchase price. On the other hand, for intermittent use, it is the “least-bad” solution
when alternatives would require major investments to improve ductwork for a specific
area, for example. Just remember, electric resistance heat is usually the most expensive
form of heat, and it is, therefore, seldom recommended.

“Electric baseboard heat” is yet another kind of resistive heating, similar to a plug-in
space heater except that it is hard-wired. It has two principal virtues: the installation
cost is low, and it is easy to install individual room thermostats so you can turn down
the heat in rooms that aren’t being used. Operating costs, as for all resistive systems,
are generally very high, unless the house is “super-insulated.”

Wood-Burning and Pellet Stoves

Wood heating can make a great deal of sense in rural areas if you enjoy stacking wood
and stoking the stove or furnace. Wood prices are generally lower than gas, oil, or
electricity. If you cut your own wood, the savings can be large. Pollutants from wood
burning have been a problem in some parts of the country, causing the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to implement regulations that govern pollution
emissions from wood stoves. As a result, new models are quite clean-burning. Pellet
stoves offer a number of advantages over wood stoves. They are less polluting than
wood stoves and offer users greater convenience, temperature control, and indoor air
quality.

Fireplaces
Gas (and most wood) fireplaces are basically part of a room’s décor, providing a warm
glow (and a way to dispose of secret documents), but typically not an effective heat
source. With customary installations that rely on air drawn from the room into the
fireplace for combustion and dilution, the fireplace will generally lose more heat than it
provides, because so much warm air is drawn through the unit and must be replaced by
cold outside air. On the other hand, if the fireplace is provided with a tight-sealing glass
door, a source of outside air, and a good chimney damper, it can provide useful heat.

State of the Art Heating

Radiant floor heat generally refers to systems that circulate warm water in tubes under
the floor. This warms the floor, which in turn warms people using the room. It is highly
controllable, considered efficient by its advocates, and is expensive to install. It also
requires a very experienced system designer and installer, and limits carpet choices
and other floor finishes: you don’t want to “blanket” your heat source.

Contact the Radiant Panel Association(link is external)

Ductless, Mini-Split, Multi-Split. Residential ductwork is relatively rare outside North

America. “Ductless” heat pumps, which distribute energy through refrigerant lines
instead of water or air, are widely used. Large field trials in the Pacific Northwest
suggest that they can have good cold weather performance, and be very cost-effective
where replacing electric resistance heating. Like ground-source systems, relative
immaturity of the market helps assure that whole-house multi-split systems carry
premium prices.

Combined heat and power (CHP) or cogeneration for houses is being seriously studied in
some countries. The basic premise is to use a small generator to meet some of the
electric demand of the house, and recover the waste heat (typically more than 70% of
the heating value of the fuel) to heat the house (hydronic or water-to-air systems) and
make domestic hot water. These systems are not yet widely available. They are likely to
have the best economics in houses with high heating bills because the house cannot be
feasibly insulated, such as solid stone or brick homes.