4 Types of Heating Systems to Know

What’s hard to believe in today’s age is a house that doesn’t have some form of a heating system. Those that don’t, will even have a temporary solution, which can often be a portable one.

It is now almost an instinct to instantly crank up the heat as soon as the first chills of winter enter our house. Choosing the right type of home heating system will help us cozy up our environments, while also not being a burden on the energy bills.

So, let’s go over some of these heating systems that are most popularly used in our homes.

1.   Electric Space Heater

First up are the portable heating solutions. These are plugged into an electrical socket that heats up the internal components of the heater – heat is mainly generated from the heating resistors inside.

The resistors are one of the most important components involved in any equipment that works with electricity. They are also known as heating resistors when their primary purpose is to produce heat. You can find many of these heating resistors for any of your electrical equipment here: https://www.tme.com/us/en-us/katalog/heating-resistors_113148

These are the perfect temporary solutions for people who experience short cold seasons. These are usually oil-filled that convert electrical energy directly into heat, within minutes – just like how a clothes iron would work.

However, these are “temporary” solutions because they can be expensive to use and can yield high electricity bills. Regardless, they are still inexpensive to purchase and be used practically anywhere.

2.   Electric Convection Heater

An electric convection heater works in a similar fashion to the electric space heater. However, the heating element (an enclosed heating resistor) is exposed to the air this time.

The air comes in contact with the hot heating element, it gets heated up. And as hot air is lighter than cold air, the hot air rises up. Its place at the bottom of the room is taken by the cold air, where the cold air heats up and the process repeats itself. Thereby, heating the room via the laws of convection.

The electric convection heaters can also be used to heat the air indirectly – or, in other words, cool something. For example, in the radiators of cars. Where the heating element would be submerged into the oil. Oil is then spread across the radiator, to increase surface area for heat transfer, so the radiator can be efficiently air-cooled.

3.   Submersible Heater

These are the extension of the electric convection heater. The heating resistors are submerged into water to be used in most household applications such as water boilers, aquarium heaters, and some cooking utensils.

The heating resistors are also electrically insulated for safety purposes as well as to prevent the electrolysis of liquid that is being heated.

4.   Heat Pumps

Heat pumps are one of the most popular heating systems used today. There are mainly two causes for that.

·       One, they can cut electricity usage by 50% as compared to electric resistance heating.

·       And two, they can also be used as air conditioners during the summer months.

The way a heat pump works is it scavenges heat from the cold outdoors with the help of electrical systems and discharges it indoors. The heat is also amplified a little as all electrical systems produce heat in some form – thanks to the necessary components inside (mainly the heating resistors).

In summers, the functioning of heat pumps gets reversed. The air conditioner works by moving heat from cool indoors to the warmer outdoors.

Final Thoughts

There are multiple variations of different heating systems employed in households today. One thing that would grab any person’s attention is that these mostly use electricity whether directly or indirectly.

For example, the popular heat pumps, which are also used as air conditioners, use a series of electrical components to use electricity from the wall socket to move heat from one place to the other.