At the end of August 2020, it is time to think about what energy sources we can use during the winter to heat our home, but without releasing a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere that adds to global warming and produces severe weather changes.
Heating Your Home Without Polluting the Environment
I'm sure that you are aware of the fact that using any fossil fuel for residential heating during the winter will generate carbon emissions and other toxic gases that will affect both your neighbours and the atmosphere.
The age of fossil fuels is long gone because nowadays we have plenty of resources to heat our home without polluting the environment.
Sources of Heating that Don't Pollute the Nature
By now, many of us have used coal, wood, natural gas, propane, diesel fuel, etc. to generate heating during the winter, but the problem with these energy sources is created by the large amount of greenhouse gases released while burning them.
In 2020, we can use for heating a geothermal heat pump (the chapest solution in terms of monthly bills paid for heating), AC units with inverter and electric underfloor heating (the most cozy, but most expensive solution).
A Geothermal Heat Pump
This type of heat pump is cleaner because it uses the underground heat of the Earth to increase the temperature of an agent that is used for residential heating during the winter, and residential cooling during the summer.
Geothermal heat pumps consume only a small amount of electricity becuase the main source of heating is produced by the internal heat of the planet (which is a renewable resource because is produced by the very hot inner core of the Earth).
A geothermal heating and cooling system is not cheap to install, but after you install it, you will pay extremely low energy bills, and the device will work for decades.
AC Units With Inverter
AC units with inverter are less popular because they are pretty new devices on the market today.
In my case, I use 5 AC units with inverter (Daikin units) to heat a medium one-story house.
Giving the fact that I have to heeat an area of about 2,150 square foot, I pay during the coldest months (January and February) only about $250/month.
Using natural gas to heat such a house would cost me at least $300/month.
However, using these AC units with inverter helps me to bring my carbon footprint up to zero, but I don't know what type of energy source was used to produce the electricity provided by the grid.
Electric Underfloor Heating
Electric underfloor heating is a fancy mode to heat your home, and is also a very comfortable one because the heat comes from the floor up.
This type of residential heating consumes only electricity to run, but giving that the installed capacity is pretty high, you endup paying huge monthly bills.
However, everything that is fancy and very comfortable, comes with a price.
This form of heating source does not pollute, but to be sure that you have a carbon footprint close to zero, you have to generate your own energy from clean sources to power the heating system.
Conclusion
There is always a solution to every problem, so when you think about the heating source for the winter, I suggest you to consider the above options too, because there is way to heat your home without affecting the environment.
