In an existing home, it's important to consider the impacts of replacing your current heating system with a different type of heating system. The easiest route is simply to replace your furnace or boiler with an updated model of the same type, but this may keep you from your most efficient heating and cooling options. Here's what you need to consider in the following situations: If you currently own a forced-air heating system, you may wish to add central air conditioning (if you don't have it already) or switch to a heat pump system. Adding central air conditioning is fairly simple, but be sure your contractor matches the system to your existing ductwork. Switching to a heat pump system could be problematic, since heat pumps generally require larger ducts. However, many heating systems are oversized, particularly if your home is well insulated. It may be feasible to upgrade the energy efficiency of your home (if it hasn't been upgraded already) and convert to a smaller-capacity heat pump that is matched to your existing ductwork.

To evaluate this option, consult a heating and cooling professional. Heat pumps are among the most efficient sources of heating and cooling, but in areas with high electricity costs, they may still be more expensive than other options. Switching from a heat pump system to a furnace system (possibly with a central air conditioner) is feasible but probably not cost effective. However, if you wish to do so, the ducts should have no problem accommodating the new system, assuming it is sized correctly. Many homes that use steam or hot water heating, radiant heating, or electric resistance heating (or have no heating at all) do not have ducts. Homeowners may want to add ducts to their homes for a number of reasons, but the most common reason is to provide central air conditioning. If that's your only reason for wanting to add ducts, consider instead adding a ductless mini-split air conditioner or ductless mini-split heat pump. If you are considering switching from your current system to a ducted system simply to upgrade your heating system's efficiency, it probably is not worth it, except perhaps for electric resistance heating.

Instead, you should look into upgrades to your existing system (see the heating section for more information). ac unit for 800 sq ftFor steam systems and electric resistance heating, consider switching to hot water baseboard heating, as discussed below.how to install an hvac unit Adding ducts to an existing home can be a difficult proposition. ac/dc power supply adapters for electronic devicesIn a single-story ranch home with an unfinished basement or crawl space, the ducts could be located underneath the main living space, and nearly any ranch home could accommodate ducts in the attic space. In homes with high ceilings, it may be possible to hide the ducts in a dropped ceiling. In all cases, DOE's Building America program recommends that the ducts be located within the home's conditioned space, even if that means extending to conditioned space into the crawlspace or the attic.

See the section on ducts for more information. In multi-level homes, or single-story homes with finished basements and attics, the logistics of adding standard ducts are nearly insurmountable, unless you plan to largely gut the home as part of a remodel. Fortunately, there is an alternative: several companies now offer "mini-duct" air distribution systems that force air through plastic feeder ducts that are only 2 inches in diameter. These ducts can be easily threaded through cavities in walls, floors, and ceilings. A downside with mini-ducts is that they general require more outlets: roughly 5 outlets per ton of cooling, or one outlet for every 2400 BTUs of heating. This will likely result in higher costs to install the system. The Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI) certifies high velocity air distribution systems for use with numerous heat pumps, air conditioners, and heat sources. For more information, see the "Product Info" category in the "Learn More" section at right.

If you add ducts to an existing home, the question is whether to continue using your existing heating system or to install a new forced-air heating system. For homes using electric resistance heating, adding either a furnace or heat pump is clearly preferable. With steam, hot water, or radiant heat, the decision is less obvious: it really depends on how efficient your current system is, how efficient the new system would be in the heating mode, and the cost difference between installing just a central air conditioner versus installing both a heating and cooling system. A heating and cooling professional should be able to help you evaluate these options.To complete your NATE certification, you must choose a Specialty exam. NATE offers three tracks:  Installation, Service and Senior. Please note: Technicians that become Heat Pump certified are also awarded Air Conditioning certification. Technicians that earn a Service Specialty certification are also awarded Installation certification for that specialty.

Choose one of the following Specialty exams in addition to your Core exam: /heating.html on this server. Your technical support key is: 36bd-429c-1756-6707Today more than ever, everybody’s looking for ways to use energy more efficiently around the house and cut down on utility bills. But when it comes to heating, cooling and using home appliances, there are more myths, urban legends, and old-wives-tales out there than you can shake a stick at. In fact, some of the more popular myths that you may think are saving you energy and money are actually doing the opposite. The time has come to set the energy-efficiency record straight. Here are the facts on some of the most common home energy myths, fallacies and outright falsehoods:If you have a modern forced air heating system, the pressure load is balanced throughout the house. Blocking the vent will impact how the system inhales and exhales air; it can throw the system out of balance, causing it to have to work harder or possibly break down.

Also the most energy efficient practice you can do is to have heat evenly distributed throughout the house. Blocking vents in certain rooms will make those rooms colder. Because heat moves from greater concentrations to lesser concentrations, these colder rooms will draw heat from other rooms in the house, making the whole house feel colder and causing you to raise the thermostat. Fiberglas actually does a better job at keeping heat in than keeping cold out. If you have cracks, air leaks and drafts anywhere in your house, the cold air will seep in no matter how much insulation you have. Air sealing is the most important thing you can do to plug these holes and gaps and keep the chill from creeping in. Fans cool your skin, not the air; they do not lower room temperature. A fan works by circulating the air in a space; when the air moves across the skin, we feel cooler even though the air temperature in the room remains the same. If a fan runs in a room when no one is there, no one is feeling its benefits.

So it’s just wasting electricity.Even the highest efficiency-rated heaters and air conditioners can cost you more money to operate if they are improperly sized or installed.  According to the Department of Energy, shoddy installation and improper sized equipment can waste as much as one-third of your energy consumption. Duct tapes has many great uses. But despite the name, it actually does a pretty lousy job at sealing ducts.  It doesn’t work well in dirty or dusty conditions…and you can’t get dirtier or dustier than an air duct. Also, the tape tends to fall off as it ages and the adhesive dries out. Mastic tape sticks, seals and insulates much better.Furnaces deliver heat at the same rate no matter how high the thermostat is set. If you set your thermostat at the desired temperature, it will reach that point just as quickly as if you set it higher. And since you’ll probably end up having to move the temperature down a few degrees anyway, you’ll probably wind up using more energy than you intended in the long run.

The same applies to air conditioning. Setting your A/C at full-blast will not make it reach a comfortable temperature any faster. It’s just going to make the room colder and make your system work harder. Research shows that the longer your house stays at a reduced temperature when heating or at an increased temperature when cooling, the more energy and money you will save. This is because heating and cooling cost depends mostly on the difference between indoor and outdoor temperature. When you adjust the temperature down in the winter or up in the summer, you simply reduce this temperature difference. In fact, setting your temperature back 10 or more degrees for 8 hours while you sleep or go to work can reduce your energy bill by 5-15%.  A programmable thermostat can adjust temperatures automatically for you. This may have been true of computers 20 or more years ago when they were massive energy hogs and prone to energy surge damage and wear & tear. But today’s computers are much more durable and use a lot less energy.

The small surge in energy created when any electrical product is turned on is much smaller than the energy used by running the device when it’s not needed. Rule of thumb: any time you can turn a machine or light off, it will save energy.It takes the same amount of energy to reach the boiling point whether you use hot or cold water. If you use hot water, you’ve already paid to heat the water in your water heater; you may have a headstart of a few degrees, but you’ve already paid for that headstart.Put a bucket underneath and see how quickly those drips add up. A single dripping faucet can add up to 300 or more gallons of water per month. That’s a big chunk of your water bill. This one is true! Taking a 10-minute shower with a low-flow (2.5 gallons per minute) shower head uses 25 gallons of water. A typical bath takes 30-50 gallons. There are high-quality hower heads that use 1.5 gallons per minute or less for even more water and energy efficiency.There is little if any correlation between energy efficiency and a home’s purchase price.