How a furnace works is no miracle, but the overall process is definitely interesting. Only a handful of property owners would show interest in how their furnace works, and they’d only show interest when their furnace starts to perform poorly. Being knowledgeable on how it functions before it starts to break down can significantly help people avoid panic, especially when your furnace has suddenly decided to stop working the way it should. It also stops you from attempting some unlicensed maintenance on your furnace to desperately turn it on. It does happen from time to time.
Heating Systems Are Simple, Yet May Seem Complicated
The overall idea of how a furnace works is pretty straightforward. Generally speaking, the fan takes in cold air and that air then passes through hot coils so that your home is provided with heat that you need. Resistance plays an enormous role when creating heat. Electrical resistance plays an important role. In a nutshell, when more resistance in a material exists, the more it produces heat. The same principle applies with your toaster- how it works and how it produces heat is similar to your furnace.
Think of it this way. When you start pushing an empty cart, you don’t sweat a lot, which means that your body doesn’t produce enough heat. On the contrary, if you try and push a fully loaded truck, your body starts to heat up faster causing you to sweat. The added weight and friction causes your body to burn more, hence, causing you to sweat more.
To sum it up, when pushed through a thing, long wire, these electrons go through resistance, which is the primary reason why heated air is sent through your heating ducts.
The overall process begins with the cold air – one that’s within your room. Cold air is then sucked to your furnace’s filter through a fan. The filter makes it an essential part of any furnace. It gets rid of small debris, particles and dust that could eventually cause damage to your furnace and even impose health risks. Your furnace, without a filter, can cause serious health problems in the near future, aside from the fact that it can also shorten your furnace’s life and can cause irrepairable damage.
Once filtered air passes through your fun, warm air them goes through your duct system. Most of the time, the heating system is also connected to your air conditioner system. Vents are connected to your ducts.
Your thermostat functions as the core of the entire process. Generally speaking, when you turn up your thermostat, it is just another way of telling your furnace to increase its resistance so you can get more heat. When your heating elements have increased resistance, it also means that the electrons would have to hard time passing through the coil. When you turn your thermostat back down, the opposite happens. You allow your particles to pass through the coils freely.
The majority of thermostats have an automatic feature which quickly determines when it would turn on or off – especially when the desired temperature has been met.