How to Buy the Best Heating System For Your Home
With interest rates and the rising cost of living, anyone looking to warm their homes in winter will be looking for the best heating system that provides comfort and value for their money with a low running cost.
At Gas Safe Heating Cooling & Plumbing, we know gas heating is far better than reverse cycle air conditioning and the like, but what kind of gas heating?
Electric heating in the form of a reverse cycle air conditioner, portable electric heaters, oil-filled column heaters, underfloor heating or slow combustion heaters, e.g., compete in the market for buyer’s attention. But unless you’ve gone off-grid and use only solar, these choices are often more expensive than gas in the long run.
Why Choose Gas Heating?
Gas heaters can run on either reticulated natural gas, connected to your home via a pipeline, or bottled liquid petroleum gas (LPG). You must ensure you buy a suitable model of heater for the kind of gas available in your location since not all regions have natural gas provided.
Gas heating is efficient and can save you money while warming your home in cold climates like Geelong’s. It can be a perfect choice both price and heat-wise. And provided heaters are installed by a professional plumbing service such as Gas Safe, the possible health side effects can be eliminated.
Costs
The average price for portable gas heaters can range from $400 to $1400, and flued heaters can run from $1200 to $2200.
How Do Gas Heaters Work?
A gas heater works by blowing cold air across a heat exchanger, which warms the air via gas combustion. The ducts installed in your home carry the heated air, which is pushed through vents into a room or rooms. To maintain the desired temperature, a thermostat senses the home’s inside air temperature and signals the heater to cycle on or off. The combusted products are safely discharged outside your home through a flue.
The following list shows why gas ducted heating is the best heating system for efficiency and comfort for your home:
Gas can heat your entire home.
You can choose flexible zoning.
In cold weather, you get superior performance.
Energy consumption is low, so heating costs are cheaper than reverse-cycle air conditioners or electric heaters.
Low Co2 greenhouse gas emissions.
Why You Need A Professional to Install and Maintain Your Gas Heaters
While gas heaters have many benefits, they produce small amounts of waste, including carbon monoxide, water (where mould thrives) and nitrous dioxide, all of which can contribute to asthma in children. To prevent fumes inside homes, the best option is a flued gas heater and central ducted gas heating.
The Kinds of Gas Heaters Available
Flued gas heaters:
These heaters are usually more expensive to install and also to buy. As already mentioned, they direct their waste or fumes outside through a pipe called a flue which removes the fumes from the home. The minor downside is a small amount of heat loss.
Portable or unflued gas heaters:
Australian regulations and standards impose a strict limit on the number of emissions allowable from an unflued gas heater, but you still must make sure the rooms where these heaters are operating are kept well-ventilated. And to keep your gas space heaters running safely, you need to have them professionally serviced at least every year or two.
There are two kinds of unflued or portable indoor gas heaters on the market:
Convection heaters:
While these heaters rely on the natural flow of warmed air for heat transfer, using the fan can heat a room faster. This kind of gas heater will often have a thermostat that provides enhanced temperature control. These heaters are better and more energy efficient than those without a thermostat.
Radiant-convection heaters:
These also rely on convection, the difference being that they have panel radiators at the front. Radiant convectors are often less expensive to buy but don't have a thermostat, a timer or a remote control device. They are ignited manually by pressing a button.
Precautions
When a gas heater designed as an outdoor unit is used indoors, it is highly dangerous. NEVER operate an outdoor heater inside your home. An outdoor gas heater does not have the same safe emission standards as an indoor unit. And if you have a gas heater of any type (whether unflued, flued, ducted central heating or portable), it’s wise to install a carbon monoxide alarm.
Choose Gas Safe Plumbing For All your Repairs and Servicing
All gas heater systems, whether gas log fires or regular heaters, will at some stage need servicing and repairs, no matter which brand of heater system you have or how high the quality is.
At Gas Safe Heating, Cooling & Plumbing in Geelong, our highly skilled and qualified heating and cooling specialists tradespeople are the experts to call on. We aim to make sure our customers’ gas heating systems are safe and reliable, so you don’t feel the cold! Contact us today at 0459 788 870.
