What Does HVAC Mean?

HVAC is an acronym that stands for Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning. The term refers to all aspects of your home’s furnace, air conditioner, ductwork, air purifier, etc.

What is a Boiler or Hydronic Heating?

A boiler is a heating system that consists of a water filled chamber that is heated. A water boiler heats  water to a desired temperature required then circulates this water to the heat transfer component. Such as radiators or floor heat or a fan coil. A steam boiler, the steam boiler chamber is filled about 3/4 full. The reason for this is to turn hot water to steam.  Water turns to steam at about 212 degrees farenheit for a steam boiler.  After steam is produced from the boiling of water, the steam travels trough the piping to the radiators which we call this a head of steam.
If you have radiators distributed throughout your home you have a boiler. (Although some boilers distribute heat through baseboard heaters or even radiant pipes embedded in your floors!).

If you need to replace your boiler, it’s best to replace it with another boiler. Make sure the boiler is sized for the amount of radiation of heat required.

What is a Central Air Conditioner?

A central air conditioner is a multi part apparatus that convert warm air to cool air for comfort cooling.
The central air conditioner has multiple parts that creates cooling for comfort in your home or business.
There are many parts and controls needed to create air conditioning such as:
1. A furnace or an air handler that circulates air through the evaporator coil.
2. An indoor evaporator coil thats either above or below the furnace or air handler. This component is critical to convert warm air to cool air by way of heat transfer.
3. An outdoor compressor or condenser that compresses and condenses freon gas from a heated gas to a superheated gas. This operation takes the warm air from your home and condenses to the outdoors.
In the summer when you hold your hand over the outdoor condenser while its operating you will feel warm or hot air. That air you feel is the heating being removed from your home or business.
4. The copper lines that run from the furnace or air handler to the outdoor condenser or compressor.
These copper lines carry the freon from the evaporator to the outdoor unit compressor. The Compressor pumps the freon back and forth.

What is a Furnace?

A furnace is an enclosed heating unit that heats air by transferring heat in a metal combustion chamber (called a heat exchanger) to the air and circulating it throughout heating ducts with a blower motor in the house. Furnaces can run on electricity, natural gas, propane or fuel oil. The majority of furnaces have blower motors except for gravity furnaces that just radiates heat.

What is a Heat Pump?

A heat pump is a reversible air conditioning system that changes the flow of the freon depending on the temperatures needed. Summer time the evaporator coil provides cooling and in the winter time the evaporator coil produces heat. With a heat pump in colder climate regions a back up heating system is needed such as a gas furnace or an electric furnace. The heat pump captures existing outdoor heat and transfers the heat into the home during the colder month and most heat pumps work well at about 30 degrees outdoor temperatures. The air handler distributes heat or cool air evaporator coil through the air ducts in your home through the air handler or furnace.

The main determining factor in choosing a heat pump is climate. A heat pump is not the best choice in areas that get extremely cold, since it requires transferring cold air from outside the home and warming it up for distribution inside the home—the colder the air outside of the home, the harder the heat pump would have to work to warm up the inside of the home, making this an inefficient heating system for colder climates. However a good heat pump with a back up electric furnace works well.

Facts:

• A furnace works to keep a home warm in the winter and plays a critical part in the operation of an air conditioning system.
• Furnaces produce heat through the combustion of natural gas in the furnace’s burner. The heat produced from this process then passes through a heat exchanger. Air from your home’s return air ducts is blown over the heat exchanger, thus warming the air.
• The furnace’s blower then blows the warmed air into the ductwork, which carries and disperses the warmed air throughout the home.
• During warmer months, the blower inside a furnace continues to circulate return air throughout the home–only this time, the return air has been cooled by being blown over the indoor coil portion of the home’s split-system air conditioning system. The evaporator coil is typically installed downstream of the furnace.

HVAC Benefits:

• Energy efficiency -The efficiency of a furnace can be determined by its AFUE–or Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency. The minimum efficiency level for furnaces currently manufactured in the U.S. is 80% AFUE. A rating of “80% AFUE” means that for every dollar you spend heating your home; 80 cents are actually applied to the generation of warmth. Compared to many of the 60% AFUE furnaces in older homes, 80% AFUE furnaces are a significant improvement. However, for enhanced energy efficiency, you may wish to consider a 95% AFUE furnace, such as Bryants line of 95% efficient furnaces.
• Cleaner air – As your HVAC system draws air out of various rooms in the house through return air ducts, the air is pulled through an air filter, which removes airborne particles such as dust and lint. Sophisticated filters may remove microscopic pollutants, as well. The filtered air is then routed to air supply ductwork that carries it back to rooms.
  Whenever the HVAC system is running, this cycle repeats continually, constantly filtering and cleaning the air in your home.
  1. This cleaning process improves with the installation of a variable-speed furnace. Variable-speed furnaces use variable-speed blowers, which shift between several speeds. These furnaces will run longer at a low speed, which causes them to filter the indoor air more frequently.
  2. And remember – because the furnace plays an important role in the operation of the air conditioner, its variable-speed blower helps maintain both a consistent indoor temperature and improved air quality year-round.