What Type of Heat Do You Have?

Tips to Increase Comfort and Lower Operating Costs

Electric furnaces heat air and distribute the heated air through the house using a duct system. They are more expensive to operate than other electric resistance systems because of their duct heat losses and the extra energy required to distribute the heated air throughout your home. Heated air is delivered throughout the home through supply ducts and returned to the furnace through return ducts. If these ducts run through unheated areas, they lose some of their heat through air leakage as well as heat radiation and convection from the duct's surface.

Electric baseboard heaters are zonal heaters controlled by thermostats located within each room. Baseboard heaters contain electric heating elements encased in metal pipes and are usually installed underneath windows. There, the heater's rising warm air counteracts falling cool air from the cold window glass.

Electric wall heaters consist of an electric element with a reflector behind it to reflect heat into the room and usually a fan to move air through the heater. They are usually installed on interior walls because installing them in an exterior wall makes that wall difficult to insulate.

Portable or small space heaters work well if you only want to heat one room or supplement inadequate heating in one room. They can also boost the temperature of rooms used by individuals who are sensitive to cold, especially elderly persons, without overheating your entire home. They are not, however, an efficient way to heat an entire house. – more –

Heat pumps use electricity to move heat from a cool space into a warm, making the cool space cooler and the warm space warmer. During the heating season, heat pumps move heat from the cool outdoors into your warm house; during the cooling season, heat pumps move heat from your cool house into the warm outdoors. Because they move heat rather than generate heat, heat pumps can provide up to four times the amount of energy they consume. – more -