The arrival of heating season means different things to different people. For some, it means that it’s time to get their heaters ready for the cold months of winter. For others, it means that it’s time to install a new system entirely. If you fall into that second group, you should consider installing a boiler heating system. Let’s take a look at how boiler systems work, and the many advantages that they can offer you.
How Boiler Heating Works
A boiler based heating system works by distributing hot water throughout the house using a pipe network. These pipes are installed in the walls or subfloor of each room, occasionally including terminals like iron radiators or baseboard heaters. As the hot water flows through these pipes, it transmits its thermal energy directly into the walls or floor. From there, the heat radiates into the room. This is why this method of heating is called “radiant heating.”
Advantages of Radiant Heating
The first thing you need to understand about radiant heating is that water is a much better thermal transfer medium than air is. What that means is that water absorbs more heat, and stays warm longer, than air does. Combine this with the fact that boiler systems don’t have to deal with duct leaks (which causes massive energy loses in forced-air systems) and a boiler based heating system is much more energy efficient overall.
Boilers also tend to heat rooms more comfortably than forced-air systems. Hot air rises to the top of a room and sinks as it cools. This creates very uneven and uncomfortable heating throughout the house. Radiant heating, meanwhile, keeps all heat near the floor of the room where it is most needed.
If you’d like to know more about the advantages of boiler systems, call Sunset Air. We install boiler systems throughout Olympia, WA.
