Maybe you remember the morning where it was below freezing outside. You got the kids showered and off to school, washed the dishes and even did a few loads of laundry. You were exhausted afterwards but before going to work yourself you just wanted to take a nice hot shower to relax. There is only one problem; with all the hot water you used for everything else there is none left for you. This would not be a problem if you hooked up a water heater to a gas or oil powered furnace. A hot water furnace can come in very handy indeed.
It does not matter if you are entertaining guests or a lot of your family members are using the wash, bathroom or sinks all at the same time; unlimited hot water from a hot water furnace is an excellent bonus to have around your house
How Does a Hot Water Furnace Work?
A hot water furnace simply works as an add odd in most instances to your existing natural gas, propane or oil forced air furnace in most circumstances. The theory behind it is that you are already using that heat source to heat your home at certain times of the year so why not use some of the residual heat in the system to heat the water in your house too.
Your home forced air furnace produces a lot of heat to say the least; oil burns slightly hotter than natural gas or propane so it is ideal to hook up an oil hot water furnace to your new or existing forced air furnace. It is hard to beat the combination of some potential energy savings and the unlimited amount of hot water that a hot water furnace gives you.
In a hot water furnace the water passes through special tubes in the heating chamber and becomes super-heated in the process. Since the water is heated on demand there is no hot water storage tank involved in the process like you see in many homes that have a cylindrical electric water heater. Once the water is heated it simply goes to the hot water tap in a sink or bathroom. Long hot showers, multiple wash loads or even doing the dishes for several minutes after a holiday meal do not affect the hot water supply if you have a hot water furnace.
Benefits of a Hot water Furnace
It has already been discussed that the major benefit of having a hot water furnace is the fact that it will give you unlimited hot water. It will also save you money in most situations too because most fossil fuel furnaces cost less to run than a traditional electric water heater. So you get more hot water, convenience and energy savings in most every case.
If you have a forced air heating system you may want to talk to your local HVAC company and see if they have a hot water furnace that will work for you.