Heating the home efficiently – this is a very important subject. There are many ways we can heat our home.
However, how do we do this efficiently.
WOOD FIRES - Are generally not very efficient in completely heating the whole home unless you go to great expense and it’s highly skeptical to think you would get the results you need without wasting a lot of time an energy sourcing the wood and continually dragging it through the home. Then there is the fact that they are not at all environmentally friendly with studies finding the burning of wood fires is 30 times more carcinogenic than cigarette smoke.
Imagine what this type of heating is doing to the occupants of the home – suffering higher incidents of respiratory problems such as asthma, coughs, bronchitis, lung infections – with particles so small they can travel directly into the blood stream.
Then there is the damaging effect that this smoke from your fire has on your surrounding neighbours and neighbours a fair distance away, this type of heating should be banned and is a very inefficient way of heating your home and in time will possibly take years off your life.
REVERSE CYCLE AIRCONDITIONERS - Then you have reverse cycle air conditioners that will either heat or cool your home – there are large whole house systems or smaller split systems. Whichever way you go these will work very efficiently however they are very expensive to run. So there you have it efficient heating at exorbitant cost, not an all round efficient way of heating your home.
ELECTRIC HEATERS – Radiant, column and convection easy to use instant heat will heat a room effectively but not a very cost effective way to heat a home.
GAS HEATERS – unflued stand alone gas heaters delivery quick efficient distributed evenly heat at a reasonable cost, however they release emissions that could be troublesome for asthmatics and people that suffer from respiratory problems.
Probably the best all round heating system would be ducted gas heating with the unit in the roof exhausting through the roof through a flued system to the atmosphere.
This would probably be the cleanest most efficient way to heat your home its very quick and constant with lower greenhouse gas emissions it can be expensive however we believe it is the best available way to heat your home today efficiently.
In saying that before you start to think about heating your home you must have a very good ceiling insulation installed at least with an R4 rating. However this insulation barrier will only hold so much heat in the home before it makes its way through the insulation into the roofspace.
It is a common misconception that this heat in the roofspace will help in keeping your home warm, this is as far from the truth as pigs may fly.
This heat that has risen from your home into the roofspace when it hits the underside of the roof covering (this is called the dew point) it will turn to moisture – condensation. To remove this heat from your roofspace you need a good roof ventilation system so this heat does not turn to moisture. It could be raining in your roof if you do not have a efficient roof ventilation system. Once that heat is gone from your home to the roofspace it is gone and is of no advantage to you it can only cause problems in your roofspace.
So to efficiently heat your home you need a good insulation with at least an R4 rating on your ceiling, an excellent roof ventilation system in your roof and ducted gas heating would be a good choice to heat your home.