Replacing Your Furnace with a Different System

• Heat pumps: We put this system first because it also uses ductwork to distribute heat, so it is usually a simple job for installers to connect one in place of a furnace. Heat pumps are versatile systems that function as both heaters and air conditioners, which is perfect for the temperature differences in Utah. Because of heat pumps’ more efficient use of energy (they don’t create heat, they only move it), switching to one from a furnace can mean up to 30% savings off your heating bills.
• Boiler: If you want to switch over from forced-air heating and ductwork to the cleaner power of hydronic heating, a boiler is an excellent choice. Boilers can work from the same natural gas line used for your gas furnace, making them ideal if you still want to benefit from the lower cost of gas. Boilers perform at high efficiency and need few repairs, so they can outlast most other systems.
• Radiant floor heating: This is also a hydronic system, but instead of using baseboard heaters (or radiators) to send out heat into a room, they use pipes built into the floor to warm up the floorboards themselves. Radiant heating is quiet and creates cozy and even heating. However, they require more construction work to install than other systems because they must be fit into your floors.
• Ductless mini split heat pumps: This is another option for heat pumps, but they bypass the use of ductwork and instead send heated (or cooled) air directly into rooms through individual wall-mounted blower units. Ductless systems can save you money off heating because you can control the heat in different rooms through the blowers, eliminating the need to heat rooms that aren’t being used.

Whatever system you decide to have installed, make sure that you hire trained professionals to do the work. Our team at Design Comfort can perform a heat load calculation to help you find the right sized system, and then we’ll install it so you’ll get the full benefit of your new heating in Holladay, UT.