Home Heating Systems.

During the winter when its cold and damp outside, one of the many functions of your home is keeping you warm and cozy. Your home accomplishes this by utilizing one of the many heating system options avaliable. These options range from a Gas Furnace to an Electric Heat Pump or even a boiler system.

Heating System Types.

There are many different types of heating systems. The main heating systems found in the Portland area are Gas Furnace, Electrical Furnace, Heat Pump, Mini Split Heat Pump, Electric Wall Heat and boilers.

Within those heating system types they can be further broken down into Central Air and Ductless systems.

GAs Furnace

One of the main types of Heating systems avaliable is a Gas Furnace. Gas furnaces are a part of a Central Air ducted type of heating system. This just means that you have a furnace located either in the Garage, a Closet, Attic or Crawlspace that is attached to an air distribution system. The air distribution system is used to move the heated air produced by your furnace throughout your home into all bedrooms, bathrooms, living rooms, kitchens, ect.

This Central air type of system is one of the best systems avaliable as it helps circulate air through your home from the rooms, to a central return grill in the Hallway or Living area. As the system is running and the air is being circulated it gets pulled through an air filter that helps scrub contaminents in the air flow.

The Gas Furnace comes in three Efficiency ratings (AFUE). A 60%, 80% and 90%+. A 60% Efficient gas furnace is a natural draft furnace introduced and installed in the Portland/ Gresham area in the 1970s. There are some furnaces still running to this day! You can identify them by the big air intake hood located on the front of the furnace. Instead of using an induced draft motor, this furnace relies on the natural updraft effect of hot air to vent the exhaust gases from the burners to the outdoors as it runs in heating mode.

An 80% AFUE Furnace was first introduced into the US market in the 1980s and made standard in the 1990s. This type of furnace relies on an induced draft motor to help exhaust the combustion gases to outdoors. This type of Furnace is still used and installed to this day with new models being released. These new models can come in 2 Stage 9 Speed Variants or even modulating variable speed for high end efficiency and performance.

90% AFUE Furnaces are the highest efficiency gas furnace avaliabl. They were also indroduced in the early 1980s. This type of furnace uses a white PVC exhaust vent instead of a metal B vent to exhaust the combustions gases during heating mode. This type of Furnace also comes in 2 Stage and Variable speed models to help gain as much efficiency as possible out of your gas burning appliance.

Heat Pumps.

Heat Pumps have been introduced into the US market as early as the 1970s and have become on of the most popular and fast growing heating systems avaliable to this day. Heat Pumps are basically an AC unit that reverses refrigerant flow in the winter to absorb heat from the outdoor ambient air and reject it into your home. Helping heat the air traveling across your air duct system.

One subtle difference between a heat pump and gas furnace is that heat pumps produce a softer heat compared to a furnace. A gas furnace will typicall produce 120F supply air coming out of the supply registers while a heat pump tends to produce supply air at around 98F out of the supply registers.

Heat Pumps are a great Heat Source that can be utilized as the only home heat source or paired with an Electric or Gas Furnace. In the Gresham and Portland area, heating systems that use both a Gas Furnace and Heat Pump are refered to as Dual Fuel Systems or Hybrid Systems. These systems utilize the Heat Pump as the primary heat source and rely on the gas furnace as a back up heat source for when the Heat Pump is not able to keep up with the Heating Demand.

Heat Pumps come in all sorts of Efficiency ratings from the standard 7.5 HSPF2 to over 10 HSPF2 for the high end Inverter systems. Heat Pump systems can be installed in virtually any home that has an existing AC or ducted system.

Ductless Mini Splits.

Ductless mini split systems are another great Heat Pump type of heating system. This system does not use a ducted air distribution and relies on indoor head units mounted on walls in bedrooms and living areas. This system will typically have a single outdoor Heat Pump with a single or multiple indoor heads. Each indoor unit comes with a remote or thermostat controller and is controlled individually by the occupant in the room.

Ductless Mini split systems were first introduced in 1959 in Japan and have expanded into world markets over the years. These systems are great for homes that do not have a central air duct system, have additional rooms that arent heated, or have a certian room in the home that requires its own seperate heating and cooling. A server room or music room is a great example of a room that benefits from a single head mini split. These types of rooms can be cooled or heated seperately from the homes central system. Thus controlling the rooms tempurature and humidity.

Electric Furnace

Electric furnaces are considered more reliable then a gas or oil furnace becuase of fewer moving internal parts. This type of Furnace is also apart of a Central air distribution system and is typically the main heat source for a home or paired with a Heat Pump. Since this furnace uses electric resistance heat, a heat pump is highly recommended to pair with this type of heating system to help keep the electric bill lower during the colder winter months.

Heating service

If you are in need of heating service for your home during the winter, give us a call or book us online! A&B Air Solutions LLC offers professional and friendly heating service to help keep your heating system operating efficiently while reducing major failures.

This article is written by Anton Bocharov, owner of A&B Air Solutions LLC.