Before replacing or repairing your heating system it is very important to know the type of system you have in your home and how it works. There are 3 primary ways of
heating.
1. Forced air – furnaces and heat pumps
2. Baseboard – boilers
3. In floor radiant – boilers
1. Forced air heating
Forced air heating is a very common type of heating system in BC. It operates on the principle of convection, Hot air rises and cold air settles down. The easiest way to tell you have this system is if there are air ducts running in the house blowing out hot air. The heart of these systems are either furnaces or heat pumps, or the combination of the two. Whats the difference you may ask? Well here is the biggest furnaces produce heat only while heat pumps give you both heating and cooling. To get more in depth information click here for furnaces or click here for heat pumps.
2. Baseboad heating
Baseboard heating was one of the most common heating systems installed 15 years ago and you still find it in newer homes today. Though the popularity of these systems has slightly decreased, you will still run into them. Baseboard heating can be either electric or hot water powered by a gas boiler. Most older homes tend to have hot water heating with baseboards. It’s very easy to tell if you have baseboard heating because you can visibly see these heaters under most of the windows of the house. These heaters utilizes water heated by the boiler, which is the circulated through the system via pumps. This type of heating is very effective but is not visually appealing. Click here to learn more about boilers.
3. In floor radiant heating
Radiant heating has widely spread through the Vancouver area. It has become a preferred heating choice due to the comfort it provides. This is a type of water heating system which utilizes pipes in the floor to heat up your home. Like the baseboard water heating systems it too uses a boiler and pumps to circulate the water. But the biggest differences are that the pipes are in the floor and heat up the entire floor, producing even heating. This is probaky the best type of heating if installed or wired right. For more information about boilers click here.
