Types of home heating

Types of home heating

It's important to understand the different types of heating systems. This will allow you to look for the heating system before you buy your home. Once you've purchased a home, most likely, you will not change the heating systems, so read this carefully.

How heat is transferred

FA= forced air

This is when the home has duct work throughout the home. When the furnace is turned on and a fan will force the air through the home into each room. Many times when you are in the basement you'll see the silver boxy looking metal attached to the ceiling. This is the duct work. If you follow these, it will lead to were the heat goes up to the main level. Many times, this is also installed in the attic area, so you can look on the ceiling and see where the hot air will come through the roof. BB=baseboard

These are the baseboard heaters, usually, one in each room and in the living room. These are the metal heating units that you see along the base of the floor, popular in the 70's. Remember when you were a kid and you used to melt your crayons on the baseboard heaters. Wasn't that fun.

Wall

Wall heater are replacing the baseboard heaters. The wall heaters look like a rectangle that goes in the wall. They are powered by electric coils with a fan in the back. These are basically a modified hair dryer. I once lived in a place with these types of heaters. I had the heater on high, but I was still cold. I took the cover off of this heater and I could see the red hot coils and the fan pushing the warm are out to me. The fan pushed the air outward and warms the room.

Ceiling

Ceiling heat is a radiant type heat. Electric coils are installed in the ceiling. When you turn the electric heat on, it warms the ceiling. The ceiling radiates the heat downward. These types of systems are still located in some homes, but they are becoming obsolete because the much of the heat gets transferred out the ceiling before it heats the home and mice chew through the wires, making the heating system useless.

Types of fuel for the heating systems above:

NG

Natural gas heating is common in the Northwest and is surely the most popular heating fuel. Natural gas heaters can run a forced air system or a single unit in the center of the home. This type of furnace works kind of like your BBQ grill with a built in thermostat and fan. When the heater kicks on, you can hear the fire heat the elements (like a BBQ grill). Next, after a few minutes, the fan will kick on and blow the heat through your home.

Oil

Oil heating used larger oil tanks to store the oil. The oil tanks can be in the ground or in the basement. Oil is used in place of natural gas. Some homes have converted to natural gas and use the oil heating as a back up heating system so they can easily change from one source of fuel to another. The disadvantage to these systems is dealing with the oil storage tank. I usually find these in the basement, but many times they are located in the ground. You will usually see a metal pipe sticking out of the ground or next to the home with a metal lid. This is where the oil is filed when the oil is used from the tank.

Electric heat

Is used to heat the coils for the baseboard heater, coils for the wall heater, coils for the ceiling heater or in the floor and are often found in forces air furnaces. Many people can make the case that the electric heaters located in each room can be used to control the heat instead of heating the entire home, as many forces air systems do. They are now making forces air systems that you can control the heat to each room, but of course they cost more money and I'm not sure how good they work, as I haven't seen too many people convert to these types of systems. Most home owners think that electric heating is too expensive to heat their home. I agree, but maybe someday, other heat source will be as convenient, easy and prices right to heat the entire home such as the natural gas systems.

Propane

Propane heating is more popular for county type setting where natural gas in not located and is more efficient than electricity. This fuel is usually used with forced air systems. Many people rent these tanks in exchange for using the propane from the company.

Heat pump, Geo-thermal= heating

Is uses the earths core to heat and cool your home. These is extremely efficient system and some of these systems work with natural gas heating systems and are smart enough to switch back and forth to more efficient heating and cooling system.

DieselDiesel fuel is stored similar to oil fuel and is often used when other sources of fuel is not available.

Steam+ steam heating, fueled by oil or gas

I find these in my market sometimes. These systems use the baseboard heaters or the radiant heaters that are usually located in font of the windows. While in college, my room offered steam radiant heating. In the morning when the pipes would begin to heat up, it sounded like someone taking a hammer and pounding on the pipes, but this was an old YMCA building that had been converted to apartment complexes.

Coal, wood

I've seen a few coal shoots still installed in homes and I've seen old furnaces that can use coal, but this type of heating is pretty much extinct in this area. I've also seen a wood burning furnace installed in the basement. The system was hooked up to a forced air furnace. They work like this. The owner will put the coal or wood into the furnace. The furnace will heat up. Once the temperature is warm enough, the fans will turn on and blow the hot air throughout the home.

When selecting a home, it is important to determine the most acceptable heat source for your market area. In this market area, most of the homes have converted to natural gas, forced air units. The next most popular type of heating are electric, forced air furnaces and heat pumps followed by wall heaters, propane, oil, diesel, coal and wood. The older the heat source and the less popular the heat source, the more difficult it is to support the value and the more important it is to make sure you are not paying too much for your home.

When refinancing

When refinancing, there's not much you can do about the heat source. If your heat source is in good working order and is even somewhat common in your market area, then let the appraiser figure this out. The appraiser may run into problems trying to find homes with similar heating systems. If this is the cause, look at the comparable sales used in the report and see if there is a major price difference. If there is, you may want to consider updating your heating system. If the appraiser missed this and was not able to find homes that offer similar heating source, this is a warning. Replace the heat source. I've seen many cases for the cost of $5500 to convert from oil heating to a natural gas furnace would have been well worth it, as the value would be significantly more than the cost to install an updated heat source.

When buying a home

When selling a home