Central Gas Heating and Other Residential Heating Methods

Central heating plays a major role in the daily lives of millions of people around the world. When autumn ushers in every year and the scarves and coats start to fill the streets, it is also time to switch those heaters on. One of the central heating approaches that have become quite popular these days is central gas heating. In order to understand central gas heating, it is first necessary to take a look at central heating in general. What does it mean? How is it carried out?

Defining Central Heating

Central heating, in simple terms, means heating from one central source. Its objective is to provide warmth to the interiors of an entire house or building. It can also be available to just a room in a building, usually originating from one point. Central heating should not be confused with local heating. There are different types of central heating systems, and you can tailor the system to what suits your needs the best. If everything is working correctly, it should be able to turn itself on and off automatically, use no more fuel than necessary, and have the house at the ideal temperature.

Central Heating Methods

In most of Northern Europe, where people seldom use air-conditioning systems due to the cold climate, houses come with central heating installed. They normally use water circulation, hydronic, steam and gas heating systems.

Water circulation heating involves the use of a boiler that heats water in a confined water
container, a pump that circulates water in the closed system and radiators to release heat into the rooms. In the UK and in other parts of Europe, engineers combine the needs of room heating and hot water heating and storage.

Hydronic and steam system.

A hydronic system uses a boiler to heat up hot water and a pump to circulate hot water through plastic pipes installed in a concrete slab. The steam system follows the same principle, except that steam is used instead of water.

Central gas heating.

Gas heating uses a device to heat an area by burning natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas. With this system, there is really no need for any refilling, the gas company directly supplies fuel into residential houses or commercial buildings.

One of the most common types of gas heating is the use of natural gas. Natural gas, used in major central gas heating systems, is one of the cheapest forms of energy available to the residential consumer. High efficiency natural gas furnaces and boilers provide more useable heat than conventional heating equipment. For example, the latest natural gas heaters can heat twice as much water per hour than electric models. Also, recovery rates are three times faster, so they can handle extremely high loads. This means more hot water in less time, using less energy. Natural gas has grown to such levels of popularity because of the tremendous amount of energy savings and instant convenience that it can provide to residential and commercial consumers.