Forced air is by far the most popular home heating appliance in North America which provided warmth to the whole building; one room to multiple. Around 90% of homes in North America make use of a central forced air system to circulate warm air in their apartment. Forced air systems consist of a furnace with a fan to heat and move air, supply ducts to carry warm air to each room, return ducts to pull cool air back to the furnace, and a centrally located thermostat for controlling the functioning of the furnace.
A forced-air central heating system is one which uses air as its heat transfer medium. These systems rely on ductwork, vents, and plenums as means of air distribution, separate from the actual heating and air conditioning systems. The return plenum carries the air from several large return grills (vents) to a central air handler for re-heating. The supply plenum directs air from the central unit to the rooms which the system is designed to heat. Regardless of type, all air handlers consist of an air filter, blower, heat exchanger/element/coil, and various controls. Like any other kind of central heating system, thermostats are used to control forced air heating systems.
There are 3 different approaches to the autonomous heating system or forced air central heating system. They are as follows
– Water heating system;
– Air heating system;
– Radiant heating system.
In recent year, Air heating system has gain popularity when compared to classical water heating system and radiant heating system
Advantages Of Air Heating System
Cost Effective –
Operational cost and purchase cost of the appliances is much affordable as compared to other automatic heating system
Fast Heating Aptitude –
The high speed of constant air movement inside the heated room provides a quick and uniform heating of the entire volume.
Disadvantage of Air Heating System
Lower Efficiency.
Sure there are 95% efficient forced air systems out there but the number does not tell you the whole truth. By the time the air reaches its destination it has cooled off already and this may be an issue if ducts go through unfinished basements or crawlspaces.
Cold and hot spots.
There will be no room will have the same temperature. Even within the same room, there will be colder spots or warmer spots. In the summer, it can observe that the floors will be colder whereas the ceilings will be warm
Dust is being blown around.
This is a major nuisance. No matter how often you clean and vacuum there is always some dust building up and forced air systems are great in catapulting it into your throat and around the house.
Noise
No matter how well a system is tuned and built, there is always some noise.
Air drafts.
A good A/C system may be relatively quiet compared to one that isn’t engineered properly; however, air drafts are a major problem.