Central Heating
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Central heating systems
A central heating system heats either water or air which is then used to heat the entire house. For air the systems use a series of ducts in each room and for water they can use either radiators in each room or pipes built into your floors.
Many central heating systems can be zone-controlled, so you can control the temperature of different parts of your house for greater flexibility and energy efficiency.
Heat source
Central heating systems can have the heat supplied by gas or wood pellet fuelled boilers, or heat pump water heaters. The efficiencies of these heat sources are likely to be similar to the efficiencies discussed for each fuel type covered in earlier sections.
Insulation
As central heating heats your whole house, good insulation is especially important. If your house isn’t insulated well, heating more of it just means that you spend more money on heat that you don’t benefit from.
Underfloor heating
If your central heating system is the underfloor type, either in a timber or concrete floor, you need to make sure your floor is very well insulated to minimise the money you spend heating underneath your house. For concrete slabs this means insulation under and around the outside edge of the slab, and or timber floors it means something more than reflective foil.
More information
- To find out how underfloor insulation options go to the section on Your home: Insulation
- For a comprehensive discussion on home heating go to the Department of Building and Housing Heating [Smarterhomes website.]