If you heat your home using hot air blown through ducts then chances are you’ll need a system of hot air control using dampers for ductwork. The reason for this is quite straightforward in that from the source of the hot air, the temperature and pressure at which it is pushed into the ductwork system will be very high, but they might not be the levels at which you want it to enter all of the different rooms. To get around this, a series of Volume Control Dampers (VCD) can be deployed inside the ductwork to give manual or automatic control of the air flow.
HVAC
If you are not getting the heat you think you should be out of your gas, wood, gel or pellet fireplace, then you may well be in need of a fireplace blower.
Fireplace blowers are made to blow air further into the room that the fireplace is located in so that the heat isn’t all wasted in one small area of your home. A fireplace blower will assist your fireplace in heating the entire room or sometimes the entire home as well, making it more efficient.
How a Fireplace Blower Works
Whatever the reason for needing to install duct boards for an air flow system, you can save yourself a whole bundle of money by using fiberglass duct boards over aluminum ones, or even molded plastic ones. Not only is fiberglass a cheaper material to work with, it will also provide far superior insulation for the ducting.
Fiberglass is an excellent sound and heat insulating material, making it ideal for use in an air ducting system on two levels. First of all it will keep the air warm, in the case of a hot air ducting system, or it will keep the air cool if the ducting is being used to direct air from an air conditioning unit.
Heat transfer by radiant heating works through the flow of heat from the warmer material to the cooler, at a rate proportionate to the existing temperature difference. Radiant heating is the principle used in heat sources such as electric space heaters, sun lamps, fireplaces, open campfires, and so on.
A hydronic radiant floor heating system uses either a heat pump, boiler or water heater to heat water, and some type of circulator which pumps the heated water through a series of tubes located underneath the surface of the floor.
The refrigerant in an air conditioning system or air conditioner is transported to the different components in it through copper piping of small diameter called refrigerant lines. The line that carries liquid refrigerant from the condenser or receiver to a pressure reducing device is called the liquid line. Between the evaporator and the compressor inlet, the line is called the suction line.
An air conditioner’s condenser is a component which turns gas into liquid via a cooling process. Warm gas in the form of refrigerant vapour from the compressor enters the condenser coils at the top end; as it is condensed, it drains down to the bottom of the coils and into a receiver unit.
The receiver unit holds any surplus liquid refrigerant. The condenser’s function in an air conditioner is to release the heat from the refrigerant to the air surrounding the coils. Split system air conditioners have a separate condenser unit located outdoors.
Excess moisture in the air of your home not only affects your comfort and health, but can undermine the structural integrity of the house as well. High humidity promotes growth of microorganisms like molds, bacteria and viruses. Low humidity causes dries out respiratory linings, shrinks and warps wood and other materials, and causes cracking in walls and some flooring materials. That is why controlling humidity to the proper levels is so important.
But where does humidity inside a house come from? There are various sources:
- Soil moisture penetrating walls and floors of basements
- Outdoor air coming through cracks, holes and gaps in windows and door
Ducts for forced air heating should be inspected annually. Heating ducts reach all through your house, and need to be inspected by a professional for energy-wasting leaks, excess dust that can constrict airflow and absorb heat, and dampers which may need adjustment and rebalancing for optimal heating efficiency.
The typical home ducting system will include an electronic air cleaner or physical filter placed between the returning circulated air flow and the heat exchanger. You should replace or clean the filter after 4 to six weeks of use, whether usage is for heating or air conditioning.
Providing an overview of how you might set about comparing domestic downflow and upflow furnaces is a relatively straightforward process. The ‘flow’ of a domestic furnace actually refers to the path by which the heat is output from the furnace. A point which many people find surprising, as they automatically presume it will refer to the cold air flow into the furnace, in order to make the heat generated more or less intense.
3 Types of Domestic Furnace Flow
There are in fact three types of furnace flow, with the commonest ones being upflow and downflow.