What heating & air does the home have? CONFUSED please help

[Jose Castillo]

Ok so this is where I get a bit lost when talking with sellers: It's like I suddenly get lost when they start telling me about what kind of heating and air they have. I guess I have some of these components confused as to whats what, how do they work, and what questions I should ask. Any advice for my situation would be great! What should I be on the look out for when it comes to HVAC questions?

[Ann Bellamy]

In general, you'll have two overall components to a heating system:  The fuel, and the way it gets around the house.  I'll elaborate a little

Examples:  

• Natural gas hot air
• Natural gas hot water
• Oil hot water
• Oil hot air
• Electric baseboard
• Electric heat pump
• Propane hot air
• Propane hot water

As an overall, the first is what provides the actual heat, the second part is how it gets delivered around the house.

Natural Gas Hot Air:  Generally there is a furnace that heats the air and has a blower, and then air ducts that deliver the hot air around the house.

Natural Gas Hot Water:  Now it is a boiler that uses natural gas to heat the water (separate from the domestic hot water for your shower) and then circulating pumps that move the hot water through baseboard pipe units with "fins" for distributing the heat.

Oil just uses that fuel (instead of natural gas) to either heat the air or the hot water.  The same with propane, it is a manufactured product that is delivered in trucks instead of piped through the ground.

Electric baseboard simply combines the generation of the heat and the delivery of the heat into electric baseboards installed by an electrician.  

Electric heat pumps are a slightly different animal, not used much in the northeast because they are ineffecient when it is cold.  You can research that separately on google.  

For air conditioning, the fuel is electricity and it is normally supplied through the duct work of a forced air system.  You can't send cold air through baseboard pipe.  The newer (sort of ) mini split systems are installed directly through the wall instead of at the furnace, so can be used where there is baseboard hot water heat or electric baseboards.

Then there is wood - but found infrequently as a primary source of fuel.

Once you have the basics, you can google the rest.