HVAC systems typically include heating, venting, and air conditioning units that are combined to keep your home at a comfortable temperature all year round.
There are two common ways to heat your home with an HVAC system:
Furnace Heater
A forced air furnace heats air using gas or electricity. The furnace blower circulates heated air through the air ducts in your home.
Heat Pump
Heat pumps keep your home warm by pumping in heat from outdoor air without burning fuel like a furnace, and don’t require pilot lights or exhaust vents. In much colder climates, a heat pump may be combined with a furnace to heat homes on colder days.
Ventilation in your HVAC system includes floor, wall, and ceiling vents, ductwork, and other ventilation shafts that help to move fresh, outdoor air throughout the system and your home. Ventilation helps to normalize the temperature in your home in tandem with the heating and air conditioning portions of your HVAC system.
Warm air inside your home is circulated over coils in the furnace containing refrigerant to absorb the heat, cooling the air. As the refrigerant warms, it circulates to coils in the outdoor unit where a large fan dis-spells the heat. The continuous circulation of the refrigerant cools the air in the home.
Are you in the process of buying a house and not sure what you’re looking at when you get to the home’s furnace room or utility closet? Maybe you’ve been in your home for a few years but still don’t quite understand the meaning of HVAC and the system that is in place to heat and cool your environment. We’ve compiled a list of common HVAC-related terms that you should know. Check it out on our blog!
Indoor Air Quality is more than heating and cooling—it’s about adding the components like ventilation, purification, and humidity control to create a Healthy Home environment. Now that you understand the basics of how your home’s HVAC system works, how do you keep the system maintained and running efficiently? AprilAire knows just the experts who can help with that!
