Heating Systems
Most common types of heating systems are:
Forced Air - Natural gas, oil, propane, electric and hot water
Electric - Baseboard and ceiling radient heat
Boiler - In floor, baseboard and unit heaters
Forced Air Type Furnaces
This is by far the most common type of home heating in the Barrie and Simcoe County area. There are many minor and major items that are of concern with these types of heating systems, and the most common are:
Gas or fuel shut off in wrong location or missing
Drip pipe on gas or propane line missing
Power shut off located on exit route missing or bad location
Presence of air filter, right size and installed in direction of flow
Noisy or Defective fan motors
Un-connected heat ducts and registers
Fresh Air Mix Boxes and HRV units
B vent clearances throughout house and in the attic if applicable
Rust, loose connections and signs of soot or scorching
Poor slope on vents and missing connecting screws
Improper combustion, poor flame generation
Inadequate clearance to combustibles
Electric Heating
Common types of electric heating include; Space heaters, Furnaces and Radient Heating
Space Heaters include baseboard heaters, floor heaters, wall heaters and ceiling mounted heaters.
Furnaces can be stand alone or combined with another heat source such as wood or coal.
Radient Heating can be found in ceilings, floors or walls.
Advantages of Electric Heat are:
Main disadvantage is that electric heat can be expensive to operate.
Boiler Furnaces
Hot water boilers do not really boil water. They typically boil water to a maximum of 200 deg F. Normal operating temperatures for most boilers are typically between 120 to 130 deg F.
Boiler heat exchangers can be cast iron, steel or copper tubes. Cast iron heat exchangers are considered the most durable. New boilers can have heat exchangers make from stainless steel or copper-nickel alloy, but no facts are in as far as life expectancy due to their age.
Boilers function basically the same as furnaces except they use water vs air as the medium for heat distribution. Boilers can be used with furnaces, in floor heating and radient heating systems.
The main differences between a boiler and furnace are:
Barrie Home Inpections offers a 30 Day Money-Back guarantee on every inspection performed. Inspection Fee will be cheerfully refunded with no questions asked. We expect our customers to be 100 % satisfied and we stand behind our service.