SPACE HEATING

The document outlines strategies for reducing home heating expenses, emphasizing that a well-insulated home is the primary step toward efficiency. It compares various heating systems, including furnaces, boilers, in-space heaters, heat pumps, and active solar heating, detailing their efficiencies (AFUE), costs, and maintenance requirements. It also provides guidance on sizing new equipment and calculating potential savings when upgrading systems.

• Space heating and cooling represent 45 percent of total home energy use, with space heating alone costing the average homeowner $480 annually; in the Northeast, these bills can exceed $800.
• Leaky building shells (including walls, windows, doors, foundations, and roofs) can account for 2540 percent of a heating system's load.
• For central air systems, sealing leaky ducts can prevent efficiency losses of 2030 percent.
• Natural gas is identified as the most economical fuel choice for furnaces and boilers, with a total energy efficiency of about 90 percent from production to use, compared to 20 percent for electricity.
• Geothermal heat pumps can reduce heating costs by 3070 percent and cooling costs by 2050 percent, potentially saving homeowners $400 or more per year, though installation costs are high, ranging from $7,500 to $15,000.
• Active solar heating systems, which use electrical equipment like pumps or fans to move heat, cost between $5,000 and $18,000 to install and are most effective in climates with long heating seasons and high sunny-day proportions.
• Upgrading a furnace older than 1015 years or a boiler older than 20 years can result in a system that is at least 30 percent more efficient, typically paying for itself within 510 years.

APA

Yardi, R., Smith, A., & Wang, K. (2004). SPACE HEATING. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_HEB4SpaceHeat.pdf

Chicago

Yardi, Ramola, Andy Smith, and Katherine Wang. SPACE HEATING. RMI, 2004. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_HEB4SpaceHeat.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Yardi |first1=Ramola |last2=Smith |first2=Andy |last3=Wang |first3=Katherine |title=SPACE HEATING |publisher=RMI |date=2004 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_HEB4SpaceHeat.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{yardi2004space, author = {Yardi, Ramola and Smith, Andy and Wang, Katherine}, title = {{SPACE HEATING}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2004}, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_HEB4SpaceHeat.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }