The Most Popular Types of Heaters
Posted on: 1 December 2015
Setting up HVAC in your home or business can be a pretty complicated proposition, since there are so many different options to choose from. To help make your life a little easier, here is a breakdown of the most popular types of heaters:
Central Heating
The most common option for heating is often central heating, which is also the most heavily integrated heating system as well. This ultimately means that you need to have a dedicated ventilation system in order for central heating to work properly. On the other hand, a ventilation system is often needed for air conditioning and general air flow, so it can be a fairly cost-effective purchase.
In most situations, central heating will also give you the most heat for the least amount of money. The downside is that you will usually need to heat the entire building, even if you only need to heat a single room. Therefore, central heating is often the best choice if you want to keep an entire building warm for extended periods of time, but can be a bit cost-inefficient if you are only looking to heat a single room. However, if the furnace starts to act up, you'll need to contact a furnace repair specialist to check it out.
Space Heaters
On the other hand, you have space heaters, which are great for heating up a single room or another small area for a short period of time, but are quite ineffective at heating entire buildings. There are two main kinds of space heaters that you are likely to run into: convective and radiant.
Convective space heaters warm up the air in the room, which ultimately results in a room that is slow to heat up, yet stays warm for a long period of time.
Radiant space heaters heat up objects in the room, rather than the air itself. This results in a very quick heating process that will make a room feel warm almost instantly. The drawback is that the room itself will not heat up very quickly and if the heater is turned off, the room will rapidly cool off.
In either case, if you need to get a single room warm, then space heaters are your best bet.
Heat Pump
Finally you have heat pumps, which are extremely effective in moderate climates, but very inefficient when the temperature difference between the interior and exterior grows too great. Heat pumps can also work in either direction, which means that they can be both air conditioners and heaters, although never at the same time.
When the temperature is very similar between the outside and inside of your home, then it will be very cheap to raise or lower the temperature of your home by a few degrees with a heat pump. However, if you are planning on heating your home during a freezing winter with a heat pump, be prepared to use a ton of electricity.
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