If you visit most homes, you will find them using furnaces to heat their homes. And this is for a reason. Most forced-air furnaces combine cooling and heating capabilities, making them highly economical as you don’t need to install a cooling system when summer comes.

While furnaces are great, not everyone loves them.

What if you don’t want to be like everyone else and want a unique heating system?

What can I use instead of a furnace? If you are asking this, you should know that there are plenty of other highly efficient systems you can use.

Here they are as given by heating service repair professionals:

Heat pump

Heat pumps use the same system as an air conditioner, where they extract heat from the air and deliver it to the house through an indoor air handler.

One of the most popular heat pump systems is the mini-split or ductless heating system. The system uses a small outdoor compressor unit and indoor air handlers that you can place in different rooms throughout the house.

The beauty of heat pumps is you don’t need to install any ductwork, which makes them affordable to install.

The major downfall with them is they are often inefficient in frigid climates.

Boiler

Boilers were common in older homes, but there is no reason not to install them in your modern house. The units use a central boiler that circulates steam or water through the pipes or radiator units around the house. This makes them the best units to use when looking for zoned heating and cooling.

While boilers provide comfortable heat that doesn’t dry out the air like the other heating systems, you can’t combine them with air conditioning for a year-round HVAC system.

The units also aren’t efficient at heating more spacious house areas.

Electric resistance

Also known as electric heaters, electric resistance heating systems aren’t common in most homes due to the high electricity cost. Even in homes where you will find them, they are often used as supplemental heating systems—not primary systems.

Electric heaters are often easy to install and highly affordable. They are also easy to carry around, so you can easily move them from one room to the next.

They don’t require maintenance since they don’t have any moving parts, ductwork, or air handlers.

The major downside to these systems is that they consume too much energy, which can significantly dent your pocket.

In-floor radiant

Radiant systems provide even heat throughout the house.

Compared to other home heating systems, radiant systems are quiet, so you can even have them in your bedroom, and they won’t interfere with your sleep.

While the systems are great, they are slow to heat up and adjust to temperature changes. It’s also difficult to access the hidden piping systems if a problem emerges.

Active solar heating system

Most systems are going solar, and home heating systems haven’t been left behind. When you are looking for an alternative to furnace heating, you can use a solar system. The system heats a liquid and transfers the solar heat directly into the interior space or storage system for later use.

For peace of mind that you will have heating even in winter, experts recommend supplementing the systems with radiant heating systems, heat pumps, or boilers.

Gravity air furnace

This is a modern version of the traditional forced-air furnace. The gravity air furnace distributes air through ducts like the traditional system, but instead of forcing air through a blower, it lets warm air rise and cool air sink.

The best place to store this furnace is in the basement. Upon heating the air in the basement, the air rises into the rooms in the house through the doors, and the cool air returns to the furnace via other systems of cold air return ducts.

The beauty with this system is you don’t need to keep hiring furnace repair service Long Island professionals as you don’t need to do any maintenance as there are no moving parts.

The downside to the system is that it takes time for the temperature to adjust as the system operates on simple convection currents.