Posted: October 2009

Determining what kind of heating to install in a new home or whether you should convert the existing heating systems to an alternative is one of the most important decisions you can make. Your choices will have a dramatic impact on the comfort of your home as well as overall heating and cooling costs, household environmental quality and your home’s carbon footprint.  HomeSavvi spoke with home heating and cooling expert Larry Riggins, district sales manager of Airefco, a distributor for HVAC equipment, to get his views on the major issues associated with heating (and cooling decisions) and how to go about hiring the right contractor for the work in your home.

HomeSavvi: Larry, why should someone choose one type of heating system over another? What are the major considerations?

Larry Riggins: In the last few years there have been some major changes in our industry. On one hand, the cost of home heating energy has skyrocketed in most regions and on the other hand, advances in home heating and cooling technologies have vastly improved household comfort and indoor air quality, while making much more efficient use of the energy required to manage the indoor environment.

HomeSavvi: In what ways do the new technologies provide a healthier indoor environment?

Larry: Today’s systems control many aspects of the indoor environment including, of course, air temperature and humidity. But they can also manage airborne allergens and other so-called bio-aerosols that may affect the health of the people living in a building. Also, as new houses are built and old houses are made more energy efficient, they don’t cool down by themselves during warmer weather so it becomes more challenging to control air temperature without opening up doors and windows which, besides personal safety concerns, can let in allergens like pollen or disease-bearing insects. For example, mosquitoes have been shown to spread such things as the West Nile virus so they are better kept out.

HomeSavvi: Let’s talk about home heating energy costs and how this could affect your decisions about what home heating and cooling technologies to consider.

Larry: Well, most homes are heated using fossil fuels or electricity and we all know that those costs have escalated steeply in recent years. By upgrading from an old, inefficient heating system to one of today’s highly efficient systems, you will use much less fuel for heating, reducing your monthly utility bills.

HomeSavvi: But do the savings make the expense of purchasing and installing a new system worth it?

Larry: There are several ways of answering that question. One has to do with qualitative improvements to home comfort and environmental healthiness. But from a strictly financial point of view, you have to consider not only lower energy bills but also the fact that these days you can get rebates from your local utility to upgrade your heating systems, rebates from many of the leading manufacturers as well as substantial tax credits from the Federal government and many state governments. What we find in many cases is that these rebates and credits will cover half the costs of the equipment and installation. And if you haven’t previously had central air conditioning and you’re converting to a heat pump system, you’ll now have an air conditioning system for free.