Selecting A Home Heating System For Your Boulder Real Estate
There are many options available for heating a home and the choices vary often by your geographical location. When selecting a home heating system for your Boulder real estate or reviewing an existing system included in a home you may be considering, you may want to do your homework to understand the basics. We’re seeing many better choices due to the way manufacturers are producing more energy efficient products.
The process of selecting a home heating system is not as complicated as you might think but there are some choices to make that merit taking a moment or two of your time to learn why one system might be better than another for you.
Some things to consider:
Ducts should be well sealed and insulated if they run through unheated parts of a home such as a crawl space or attic. Don’t use old-fashioned duct tape, it won’t last long enough as it dries out quickly and becomes brittle. There are better products including special compounds and an aluminum based tape that can be used effectively.
Gas-Fueled Warm Air Furnaces are common throughout much of the midwestern United States and can be configured to burn propane or natural gas. Many times propane is used in hard to reach locations such as in the mountains. It’s important to have these systems serviced regularly and to change the filter often to keep them running well. One advantage of these systems is that they provide a very quick delivery of heat and can easily accommodate equipment to provide air conditioning (cooling air) to a home.
Electric furnaces provide heat by using a series of electric resistance heating elements and a central fan. The fan is similar to a blower in a fuel-fired warm-air furnace. Electric furnaces were once quite popular but increasing electricity prices have made them potentially too costly to operate. In areas where the demand for heat is low or where electricity prices are low, they can still be cost effective.
Other heating systems include air-source and ground-source heat pumps, electric baseboard heat, hot water boilers, Hydronic heating systems piped through the floor, wood/coal and pellet burning stoves, and active and passive solar collecting and distribution systems.
This is certainly not a comprehensive list and the D.O.E. / K.State Document about selecting a home heating system is a very useful resource if you’d like to learn more about a particular type of system.
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