A History Of Heating And Todays Methods
Although it is considered a modern convenience, central heating goes right back to Ancient Greece. Central heating itself is a system that provides heat to either a section of, or the whole of the interior of a given building.
Central heating is believed to have been invented around the 350 BC mark to warm the Great Temples and the homes of the wealthy. Their systems worked by circulating warm air through flue systems in the floor. In todays systems, we can power blowers with electricity, therefore billions of homes around the world are heated by forced air systems.
The way these forced-air systems work is that they pull air into their piping systems, send it through a furnace to heat and filter it, and then send it back out into the room. Different sizes of each model are available to fit every room size.
These systems are sometimes used with an air filter, an AC (air conditioning) unit, and a humidifier. The pipes in the system are usually made from a hard-warring metal like copper surrounded in insulation for optimum heating.
Local heating differs from central heating as the heat is generated in one place, e.g. a furnace room. The heat then begins circulating, usually either by water thats being forced through piping, steam thats being pushed through pipe work or by air that is being forced through piping.
In parts of northern Europe, where the weather is quite cold anyway so they rarely need air-conditioning, central heating comes installed with most new homes.
Steam heating systems powered by gas, oil, or coal can are used in parts of the US, Europe and Russia, more so in bigger buildings. Systems of electrical heating are less commonly found and are only used in areas of cheap electricity.