Heating on a budget starts with finding the most economically sound heating option for your property, and two budget-friendly choices are ductless heating systems or space heaters. Keeping your home in Lacey, WA, warm all winter and determining how much you pay overall will depend on the heating system you select. To help you decide, read on to discover if ductless heating systems are better than space heaters and if they’re the best choice for your home.
Energy Savings and Better Efficiency
Everyone who has used space heaters in their home knows that they increase energy costs dramatically. Plus, space heaters often run constantly to achieve the preferred room temperature, making them less efficient than other systems.
Ductless heating systems use indoor air handlers and a heat pump outside to achieve the preferred temperature and circulate heated air throughout the house without running constantly. These systems operate on thermostats, read room temperatures accurately and give you a more energy-efficient heating option than space heaters that continue to run until you turn them off manually.
More Temperature Control
Some space heaters have an internal thermostat and remote control for you to adjust the temperature, but manufacturers design them to heat a small space and not an entire room. Although you may try, you can’t control the room temperature with a space heater and will find cold spots in the room if you move away from the unit. Ductless heating systems, on the other hand, heat the entire space and maintain accurate temperatures throughout the home, so your whole room remains at the temperature you choose.
Heating More Than One Room
Again, space heaters barely heat one room, and they definitely won’t heat your whole house like other heating systems. However, a ductless heating system supports multiple indoor air handlers, usually enough to heat your entire home. You can find models that connect to as many as eight air handlers.
Saving on Maintenance Costs
Cleaning out a space heater or a ductless heating system isn’t expensive, so the cleaning and maintenance costs don’t make either heater better overall. Most space heaters don’t require you to set up an appointment for seasonal cleaning or maintenance. However, you could get a service plan for maintaining and cleaning your ductless heating system, and these HVAC services could reduce allergens and improve system performance.
Eliminate Fire Hazards
Space heaters present a fire hazard; you must remove anything nearby or around one to lower this risk. You will also be risking a fire if you leave your space heater running when you’re away from home. A ductless heating system doesn’t present a fire hazard, and HVAC professionals install these heating appliances on the wall, away from anything else in the room.
Heating and Cooling Options
Space heaters aren’t all-in-one systems, and at best, you can only heat a small space. However, ductless HVAC systems provide heating and cooling options, and you won’t need a separate system to cool your home in the summer. Discuss heating options with an HVAC professional and decide which product meets your heating needs.
Heating Performance in Freezing Temperatures
In below-freezing temperatures in Lacey, WA, neither a ductless heating system nor a space heater is energy-efficient, and neither will provide affordable energy costs. What happens instead is that both heaters will run continuously, driving up the cost of heating your home. However, if you use either system to supplement a separate system, you’d get better energy efficiency.
In conclusion, both ductless heating systems and space heaters can provide heat in your living space, but a ductless system is better. Space heaters can’t heat more than one room at a time, and they aren’t the best choice for larger rooms, as they increase energy costs and present fire hazards. Call to discuss the benefits of ductless heating system with our service technicians at Mountain Heating & Cooling in Lacey, WA, and set up an installation appointment today.
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