The Pros And Cons Of Installing An Electric Heating System In Your Custom-Built Home
If you are building a custom home and are trying to decide what type of heating system you want to have installed in it, then it's important to consider an all-electric system. While a gas-powered HVAC system can be less expensive to run in the winter, an electric system is the only option into which you can connect an air conditioner. This makes an electric HVAC system ideal if you will be building your new home in an area with very hot summer seasons.
While there are many positive aspects of electric heating systems, there are also some drawbacks. To give you a balanced view, listed below are the pros and cons of electric residential HVAC systems.
The Pros of Installing an Electric HVAC System
Electric HVAC systems have many positive aspects. For instance, they do not give off carbon monoxide gas like propane or natural gas heaters do, and this means you don't have to actively monitor for this potentially deadly gas. In addition, electric heaters are known for being long-lasting with few maintenance and repair needs.
Electric HVAC systems heat by passing air across a heated coil wire. They only contain a heating element, blower motor, and a few other basic parts. This makes them simple to repair and less expensive than repairing gas-fired systems.
Since electric HVAC systems use ductwork to distribute warm air to all of the rooms in your home, they are easy to connect an air conditioning compressor into. In fact, electric systems can be retrofitted for air conditioning at a later date if you need to save some initial costs.
The Cons of Installing an Electric HVAC System
While electric HVAC systems have many positive aspects, they also have a few drawbacks. One of the biggest is that they can be expensive to run in areas of the country with high electricity rates. However, electric systems aren't as expensive to run as those sold even a decade ago, thanks to government regulations requiring manufacturers to make them more energy efficient.
In addition to electricity costs, electric HVAC systems can struggle with uneven heating issues in larger homes with long spans of ductwork. The rooms closest to the furnace itself can be hot while the rooms farther away can be a lot colder. For this reason, if you are building a larger home and want to install an electric system, then you need to speak with your heating contractor about installing a split system or otherwise overcoming the issue of long spans of ductwork.