Home Electrical Furnaces
Looking for a new furnace for your home? You might want to consider an electrical furnace. These systems run entirely on electricity: there is no need for natural gas or anything else, it runs off of the same electricity as the rest of your house. That means no pilot lights to light all the time, it means no problems with the heat going out when the burner goes out. Steady, constant heat flowing through your home with your electrical furnace.
One of the most common types of electrical furnaces is the forced-air furnace. In these systems air that has been heated is distributed through your house using a fan. There is no need for natural convection in these systems because the air is being forced by the fan to go into each room of your house (unless of course you shut off the ducts to a specific room, then the air is forced onto the next room).
Forced air systems come in different varieties depending on the needs of your home and where you are going to be putting the furnace. If you are going to be installing the furnace in the basement, you are most likely going to want an upflow system, so named because the air flows up. If you are going to be putting it on the ground floor in a house without a basement, you are most likely going to want a downflow system that shoots the heat down. If it is going to be located in a crawlspace you are going to want a horizontal flow system that spreads the heat laterally rather than up and down.
So how well does an electrical furnace that runs on electrical power work? Pretty well in most cases. As with so much other technology in our world the electrical construction that goes into creating an electrical furnace is increasing every day, making the systems better than ever. Electrical efficiency is always a concern, and you don’t really want some monster furnace in your house that is going to run your energy bill through the roof.
In some cases you will find that a natural gas furnace will be more efficient than an electrical one and end up costing you less. You are going to want to look at these issues when deciding whether or not an electrical furnace is going to be right for you. This depends a lot on the layout of your home, how large your home is, where you are going to be putting the furnace and also what the prices of electricity and natural gas are in your area.
Although electrical furnaces do not have some of the problems you will find in a natural gas system, problems do arise and you will sometimes find yourself in the need of home electrical repair. While these problems are not as common as, say, the pilot light going out, they can be a hassle and costly when you have to call in an electrician to fix the malfunction in your furnace. Many electrical furnaces come with excellent warranties, though: this is something else you’ll want to check out before you make your home furnace purchase.