The most used agent of heating in households is natural gas followed by electricity, as per Energy.gov. Natural gas is mostly used in combustion furnaces, where a pilot lights a burner to heat up the component which is called a heat exchanger. The air around this heat exchanger gets warm along with it and then this heated air is blown out, with the toxic byproducts of the combustion is flushed out of the house through the flue. On the other hand, in case of an electric heater, electric is passed through a heating element, which is actually a tightly packed metal coil and they generate heat. When this heat generation touches the threshold temperature, it is blown out into your home. Box furnace manufacturers are typically inclined towards these two types of furnace heating systems, in accordance with their demand.
Now when it comes to the benefits of using these furnaces for heating up your home, a comparison becomes inevitable.
The advantages of using an electric heater are:
- Electric heaters are energy efficient as they do not operate on fossil fuels.
- Longer lifespan is a given advantage of electric heaters. The average lifespan of these are from 20 to 30 years.
- The purchasing and installation cost of an electric furnace is comparatively lower.
- Since electric furnaces do not need gas lines or fuel tank, they are more convenient.
The advantages of using combustion heaters are:
- The cost of the fuel is lower in case of combustion furnaces as the price of natural gas is much lower than that of electricity.
- Combustion heaters provide more efficient heating. With the gas heating up around 130 degrees, it can warm up your house faster than an electric heater can. Hence they are more handy especially on colder days.
- Combustion heaters provide clean burning of fuel as natural gas burns the cleanest among all the other fossil fuels.
Summed up together, the general benefits of using a furnace system for heating can be narrowed down as:
- The ductwork that is required for the functioning of furnace systems are also eligible for delivering cool air during summer. Hence it serves as a common setting for the installation of both heating systems and air conditioning systems.
- Energy efficiency has to be the biggest upside of using furnace system to provide heating. While natural gas furnaces have 90% of AFUE ratings, a lot of electric furnaces actually have a 100% AFUE rating.
- Since furnaces are the most widely used heating system, they are readily available in the market
- Furnace heating system can provide faster heating than most of the other methods.
The benefits being stated, most of it can be extracted even more effectively through the newest high efficiency furnaces. These furnaces consume a whole lot less amount of fuel compared to the traditional ones. This in turn saves a lot of the fuel cost that seems to be constantly on the rise. Apart from this financial upside, the high efficiency furnaces come with more features to deliver optimal performance, such as noise control, temperature maintenance and so on. Regular servicing is a must to keep any furnace heating system operating to the best of its ability. And the last important note to remember, is before purchasing a furnace system from box furnace manufacturers , a home energy audit is useful to measure the possible energy saving, as it takes into account the overall insulation, heat loss near the doors and windows, the efficiency of the systems of cooling and heating and the quality of ductwork. Happy heating to you!