Two Greener Ways To Heat Your Home

18 May 2017
Categories: , Blog

Heating is just a fact of life in areas with cool and moderate climates. If you're an eco-conscious homeowner, you may not like the idea of burning fossil fuels, like oil and natural gas, to keep your home warm. Thankfully, there are a few alternative heating choices that are greener and more sustainable.

Pellet Stoves

Pellet stoves are often thought of as similar to wood stoves, but in fact, they are more like furnaces that burn wood instead of gas. The stove can be completely integrated with ductwork and can generate enough heat to keep an entire home warm (unless you have a huge mansion.) Basically, you dump wood pellets into a feeding tank about every other day. The automatic feeding system slowly adds pellets to the burning chamber as needed, and the heat generated is used to warm air that is blown through your home.

The wood pellets used for pellet stoves are usually made from waste generated by carpenters and manufacturers of other wooden items. If they were not used to make pellets, they would just be sent to the landfill. You can find the pellets in bags at many outdoor and home improvement stores.

The primary downfall to pellet stove heating is that you need a place to store the pellets. They can take up a lot of space, and in the coldest areas, you may burn up to 40 pounds of pellets a day.

Geothermal Heating

Another green heating option is a geothermal heat pump system. This type of system consists of a network of pipes that run below the ground. The soil beneath the surface stays warm all winter, and the pipes collect this heat and transfer it into your home. In the summer, you can reverse the system and enjoy air conditioning, also powered by the geothermal system. Heat from your home will be discharged into the comparatively cool soil beneath the surface.

Geothermal heating and cooling systems are run on electricity; they don't burn any fuel. So, they are as green as the source you get your electricity from. If you live in an area where your electricity is generated by wind or solar power, they are an incredibly earth-friendly choice.

The main downfall to geothermal systems is that not all land is well suited for them. If your land is very wet or rocky, it may not be possible to install such a system.

To learn more about these and other greener heating options, reach out to an HVAC company in your area, like R & B Inc Heating & Air Conditioning.

About Me

I almost always have my air conditioner inspected every spring before I start using it in the summer. However, last year I decided to skip the inspection. Everything had been OK for the last couple of years, so I assumed that it would be fine this year as well. Why not save a few dollars and skip the annual check up, just this once? Of course, this was the year that my air conditioner decided to break down. It ran for a few days, but it never really seemed to get cool enough to bring the indoor temperature down. Then it started making a loud noise, right before shutting off completely. By that time, the AC repair company was swamped like it always is when the weather is warm, and I had to wait days for an appointment. Next year, I will definitely be getting that yearly inspection first.