Heating in Ann Arbor needs to be reliable and stable. If your home’s heating goes out in the dead of winter, your health could easily be at risk. But all that heater use adds up, and your utility bill can become unmanageable.
One efficient option is a boiler, which provides radiant heating. Heat in a radiant system transfers to a solid object that radiates heat out into the room. Boilers do an excellent job of warming spaces without using an excessive amount of energy. The systems are not as common in Ann Arbor as forced-air systems are, but they offer many benefits. Learning more about boilers may convince you to make the switch.
A boiler in the U.S. is a heating system that uses hot water to distribute radiant heat. The boiler warms up water and then sends either the hot water or steam through the pipes. These pipes connect to radiant floor heating systems, radiators and similar fixtures to heat your home.
Boilers typically use a closed-loop system for the water or steam. However, the system consumes fuel to heat the water. This fuel can be oil, electricity or natural gas.
Note that the term “boiler” in the U.S. doesn’t refer to the same appliance that the U.K. calls a boiler. British boilers are water heaters used with plumbing, but U.S. boilers are home heating systems that use heated water. The term is a throwback to older boilers that actually boiled water. Nowadays, though, boilers don’t let the water get that hot.
Central heating and wall heaters heat air and then force the air out into a room. They can be loud, and the air can become dusty if the filters in the furnace are clogged. Boilers eliminate both of those problems.
Boilers are much quieter as they do not use fans to move air around the home. They also don’t add dust to a room because the heat comes from a closed system. The heating from a boiler is steady and not dependent on furnaces turning on and off.
Boilers use water to heat a building, but the appliances use fuel to heat the water. One of the more common fuels is natural gas, but that requires access to gas lines. If your home doesn’t have access to gas lines and is all-electric, you could use an electric boiler.
Some boilers use heating oil, which may be the only fuel option for some rural regions in the state. However, the heating oil isn’t something that flows in through city lines like natural gas would. You have to have room for a heating oil tank on your property and have the oil delivered every year.
Boilers may actually help improve indoor air quality because they don’t blow air around. Forced-air systems take in air, heat it and blow it back out. Your home’s air can contain several types of pollutants, such as pet dander, dust and so on. If those pollutants get into the forced-air system, that system blows the pollutants back out into the room. The breeze from the forced-air system can also disturb particles that are sitting on surfaces like tables and floors.
Boilers don’t do that at all. They don’t disturb pollutants that have settled on surfaces, nor do they add pollutants to the room. The indoor air quality in your home can improve as a result.
Michigan requires boilers to undergo inspections, with the frequency of the inspection dependent on the type of boiler. These inspections may be annual or every two to three years. You will also need professional boiler services to check the boiler for leaks, blocked vents and pressure problems.
Koch & White Heating and Cooling has been helping Ann Arbor residents stay warm since 1934. We can help you with boiler services, furnaces and heat pumps in winter and air conditioning services in summer. If you are looking for a new way to heat your home, give us a call to arrange for an appointment.
