Tuckers Air Conditioning, Heating & Plumbing Blog

Furnaces vs. Boilers: What’s Best for Your Home Heating?

Boilers are a great way to heat your home, but they’ve become less popular over time. Instead, furnaces have taken their mantle and continue to be one of the most popular home heating options available on the market today. So what should you do? Consider a boiler, or furnace installation n Frederick, MD? Let’s help you find out.

Pros and Cons of Furnaces

Furnaces have been one of the most reliable forms of home heating for years for a reason, but they’ve also been slow to advance with other HVAC technology. Here’s a bit of the good and the bad about furnaces.

Benefits

  • Even heating across your home. Furnaces are powerful and work quickly to heat up your entire house. It makes it much easier to maintain a base level temperature in your home without as many cold spots.
  • Fairly cost-effective. A gas furnace isn’t the most expensive type of heater to power. While there’s an argument about gas price fluctuation, the same can be said about electricity prices. Gas is always a good bet to keep costs low.
  • Fast-acting. If you return to your home in the middle of a cold winter, a furnace will heat your place up quicker than most other heater types. That quick relief is well worth it.

Downsides

  • They require ductwork. This is an extra component to maintain, occasionally test and seal, and even clean. Ductwork adds more potential pain points, but you need it if you want to use a furnace.
  • Safety concerns. Furnaces come with inherent safety concerns since they contain carbon monoxide as a byproduct of combustion. While a gas furnace funnels this out of your home, damage can cause it to circulate in your home air, and that’s extremely dangerous.

Pros and Cons of Boilers

Boilers may be an older form of home heating, but they’re still reliable as can be. Here’s a few things to know about where they help and where they might set you back.

Benefits

  • Quiet operation. You barely notice that your boiler is even on. If you’re someone who can wake up at the sound of a pin dropping, boilers are a pretty good bet.
  • Highly energy efficient. Modern boilers are not only highly energy efficient, but they can work in conjunction with radiant heating systems to improve your comfort, too.
  • Durable as can be. They’re built for the long haul, so if you install a boiler system, expect to have it for a long time.

Downsides

  • Repairs are difficult. Any device that deals with water makes repairs a bit of a chore, because water can and will get just about anywhere.
  • Complicated installation process. When you install a boiler system, it’s a very involved process, so don’t expect it to be completed in an afternoon.

What Will You Choose?

Each heating system has its pros and cons, but which ones align with your home goals the most? Let’s help you figure that out. Contact us today to go over your options for installation, get a quote, and move forward in the next step of your home heating journey.

Contact us today to schedule your boiler or furnace installation today, and begin feeling the difference as soon as possible.