Know Your Home: How Heating And Cooling Systems Work

It’s the dead of winter and your outside thermometer reads 15-degrees Fahrenheit. You’re happy to be in your home, thinking you have nothing to worry about when it comes to the weather outside.

However, you start to feel a chill as the cold works its way through the house. You look for an open window or a cracked door, but your whole house is sealed up tight.

You walk over to your thermostat and turn it up. As it continues to get colder, you realize that there is something wrong with your heating.

We hear this story all the time at Enhanced Heating and Air Conditioning. Whether it’s in the middle of winter or during a summer heat wave, we’re called to come fix your central heating and air conditioning.

Many people don’t know how heating and cooling systems work, even though they are an important part of being a homeowner.

Knowing the basics of these two systems could help you keep your house cooled or heated during the times you need it the most.

Keep the Heat: How Your Heating System Works

Most people take heating units for granted until the day comes when it’s absolutely necessary to look into fixing them. There are two types of primary heating appliances that run a central heating system: a furnace or a boiler.

Running on either gas or oil, the furnace is the main provider of heat. Heating and cooling manufacturer Trane explains that burners in your furnace generate combustion gases that are then passed through a heat exchanger.

After gases pass through the furnace, air from your home blows into the exchange to be heated. Once the air is warmed, it’s delivered throughout your home via air ducts.

Other heating systems send hot water or steam through pipes to radiators or convectors located throughout the house. This type of system primarily uses a boiler to heat the water and is used in older homes.

Don’t Sweat! Central Air is Here to Keep You Cool

Air conditioners are powered by electricity and remove heat from the air similar to a refrigerator.

Most central cooling systems are split, meaning they have an outdoor cabinet containing the condenser coil and compressor and an indoor evaporator coil.

This coil is installed with your furnace and, along with the heat, work together to pump out cold air. Believe it or not, but a heat pump doesn’t just heat the air – it cools it too!

Goodman Air Conditioning & Heating explains that the blower inside the furnace continues to circulate air throughout home, but is first cooled by the indoor coil portion of an air conditioner.

An air conditioner works by absorbing the heat from the air and releasing it to the outside, blowing the cool air throughout the house using the same ductwork as your heating system.

When this AC system fails, sometimes the fix is as simple as changing the air filter. Other times, calling an HVAC professional is the best option.

Enhanced Heating and Air Conditioning is Here to Help

HVAC Technician fixing a unit.Knowing how heating and air conditioning systems work is important, but they’re hard to fix when broken. Enhanced Heating and Air Conditioning is here to help you when your heating or air conditioning system stops working or is not working efficiently.

As one of the top HVAC companies in Delaware, we know all kinds of heating and air conditioning systems inside and out. We’re here to give you a furnace tune-up, inspect your air conditioning, or fix your home system so that you can stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Give us a call today at 302-416-4730.

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