We could talk for hours about the many differences between heating systems in our area. In fact, if you challenged us, we could probably write a blog post every month for a whole year about interesting facts and differences between heat pumps, gas furnaces, and electric furnaces. But the truth is that most homeowners who come to this blog aren’t concerned with fun facts and “tidbits” of information, they want to know the pressing information about the system they’re likely to purchase.
When it comes to furnace repair in Glenview, IL, you’re going to want to know about the type of energy that fuels your gas and electric furnaces before you decide what repairs are worth calling an emergency hotline for. Today, we’re going to go over this major difference between the two heaters, and we’ll try to answer all the questions that usually come our way.
Every Heating System Has a Fuel Source
Let’s start with the basics. The biggest difference between a gas and electric furnace is the fuel source. Gas furnaces run on natural gas that’s produced locally through your municipality and run through gas lines. Electric furnaces run on electricity, which is produced locally through a power plant that’s also run by your municipality. Both of these different fuel sources have different prices and will ultimately run systems in different ways.
Gas furnaces run via combustion, which is the process by which the system burns the natural gas that comes into it with an ignition source. This is different from electric furnaces, which run on electrical resistance. Electrical resistance is when a coil heats up and produces heat that then gets cycled through the air in your home.
Both of these systems are powerful, efficient, and good choices for many homeowners. However, when investigating repairs, it’s important to keep this major difference in mind going forward.
The Energy Source Changes The Type of Repairs You Might Need
Gas and electric furnaces require different types of repairs. If you’ve got a family friend who can easily diagnose problems in gas furnaces, but they’re coming to take a look at your electric furnace, then we’d highly advise you to steer towards professionals. These systems run on different energy sources and thus their problems can be very different.
Gas furnaces, for instance, can have a ruptured heat exchanger which leads to leaking carbon monoxide and fumes into your home’s air. However, an electric furnace doesn’t have a heat exchanger, and instead, they could be dealing with problems like dirty coils or constantly tripping electrical circuits.
Make sure you’re calling the right team for the job depending on which type of system you have.
We Repair Both Gas and Electric Furnaces
Luckily, you don’t really need to find someone else! Our team provides specialized repairs on both gas and electric furnace systems. We’re licensed and certified, so we’ve gone through the specific training necessary to ensure we can fix both types of systems accordingly.
It’s time to contact Roberts Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc. for comprehensive furnace repairs.