Your Guide to Hydronic Heating

As winter approaches, you're again faced with the age old question of how to heat your Oklahoma home as efficiently and effectively as possible. There are many ways to reduce energy bills and maximize your furnace's efficiency. However, you may want to take things a step further, outfitting your home with a hydronic heating system. What is hyrdronic heating, and how can it benefit you? Here's a basic guide to forced air vs hydronic systems.

What Is Hydronic Heating?

In a traditional forced air system, air is heated by the furnace, then blown through ducts and vents to each room of your home, to warm it up. With hydronic heating, water is heated instead of air, using a boiler instead of a furnace.

Hot water or steam then flows through pipes throughout your home. Each room is outfitted with its own heat exchanger, either in the baseboards or mounted somewhere. The heat exchanger extracts heat from the water and uses it to warm that room.

Pros and Cons of Forced Air Vs Hydronic Systems

Since a hydronic system circulates water through your home instead of air, there are no dust particles or other contaminants blowing into a room, which reduces the risk for allergy and asthma sufferers. There's also no air filter to change. A hydronic system does take longer to heat a room than forced air, but the heat also remains in the room longer.

The main appeal of hydronic heating, though, is that it's energy efficient. Extracting heat from the water uses much less energy than heating the air - and the lack of vents means there's no energy loss from ductwork, either.

Forced air, on the other hand, is much less expensive to install - especially if you're retrofitting an existing home. A heat exchanger in every room, plus additional plumbing to pipe hot water through the walls, can end up costing about twice as much for a hydronic system than it would for forced air.

To get more information about forced air vs hydronic systems, contact us at Air Assurance. We're Broken Arrow's source for home comfort service.

5 Ways to Keep More Heat in Your Home

The challenge of every homeowner during the winter is figuring out how to keep more heat indoors. Heating systems work hard, but if you've invested in an efficient, modern furnace and have kept it well maintained, you've already taken the most important steps toward lowering your utility bills.Still, there's always more you can do. Here are some tips that will help boost your heating efforts and make your home warmer and more comfortable.

Seal and Insulate

• One of the best things you can do to keep cold air out and warm air in is to apply caulk around window frames and weatherstripping in door frames. Plastic film on windows and glass doors should also help. Apply wherever you feel cold breezes.

• A door sweep will also keep chilly winds out. Make sure it's attached low enough to do the job without wearing the material out. You may have to adjust it from year to year.

• Insulation is perhaps the no. 1 way to keep your home cozy. Have your home's insulation assessed by a professional for its effectiveness. Does your insulation have the right R-value (resistance value) for our area?

• An easy way to insulate is by pulling drapes or curtains shut on a cloudy day to keep heat in. Be sure to open the drapes on a sunny day to let sunshine (passive solar energy) naturally warm your home.

• Install a programmable thermostat. Program yours with a regular regimen. You might start with a program that is set for 68 degrees in the morning when people are getting up, and then goes down to 60 degrees after everyone leaves. The thermostat will then call for a return to 68 degrees when the household is due to return home in the afternoon or evening. At bedtime, the temperature should once again revert to 60 degrees. If occupants complain of being chilly, urge them to dress warmly.

Contact Air Assurance for more tips on how heating systems can keep your home warmer. We serve customers in Broken Arrow and the surrounding areas.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Credit/Copyright Attribution: “VooDoo13/Shutterstock”

Time To Buy A New Furnace? Here's How To Compare The Efficiency And Cost Of Three Different Types Of Heating Systems

When considering a new heating system, one of the most important factors to consider is the lifetime costs involved with each option. Because the average lifespan of most heating equipment is 15 years, the upfront cost of the equipment may account for as little as 5 percent of the lifetime costs when it is all said and done. Things like operational costs, energy efficiency and repair work all need to be considered. Here's how to compare three different heating options.Natural GasThis is one of the most popular heating options throughout the country. While energy prices have fluctuated over the years, the advancements in furnace and boiler technology have been able to improve their performance, thus requiring less and less fuel. High efficiency equipment begins at 90 percent AFUE (annual fuel utilization efficiency).GeothermalThese heating systems are amongst the most environmentally friendly of the options. It essentially uses the stable temperature below the ground to heat your home. The installation may be more expensive, but the energy savings over the years will be substantial, sometimes as much as 50 percent compared to whatever you are paying now, especially if you have an outdated furnace of more than 20 years old.Heat PumpsThese are considered the middle ground between the other two types of heating options. They consist of a compressor and tubing that are used to extract heat from either the inside or the outside, depending on if you are cooling or heating your home. They may require an electric or gas backup and your home may need some modifications to your electric system to handle the increase in electricity you will be using.To learn more about various heating options and the benefits they can provide, contact an HVAC professional at Air Assurancetoday. We can help you address the unique conditions that your home presents, and give you advanced information on lifetime costs, what additional factors need to be considered and what is best for your climate. We have proudly served the Tulsa and Broken Arrow area for over 30 years.Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Air Assurance services Tulsa, Broken Arrow and the surrounding areas. Visit our websiteto see our current promotionsand get started today!      Photo courtesy ofShutterstock.