How a Boiler Heats Your Home

Date: December 5, 2022

Let’s go through the process for your home’s boiler system

Winter will officially begin in a few weeks, but here in Boston and its surrounding towns, winter weather is already making its presence felt. If you have a boiler system in your home, your radiators are probably already heating up.

At Cubby Oil & Energy, we have a team of skilled technicians that can handle any boiler installation or service challenge. Here’s a primer on what boilers are and how they work.

How is a boiler different than a furnace?

You can think of both a boiler and a furnace as the heart of a heating system. But they generate and distribute heat in different ways:

• A boiler system heats water, then cycles either the hot water or steam through your plumbing to radiators or a radiant floor heating system.
• A furnace (or forced air) system heats air and then blows it into your living space through ductwork.

Whether your boiler distributes steam or hot water depends on the type of system you have.

Are boiler systems better than forced-air systems?

There are pros and cons to both systems.

Furnaces utilize ductwork that can also be used for central air conditioning. This isn’t the case with boilers. On the other hand, they blow air into your living space, spreading pollutants and lowering indoor air quality.

Boilers produce a humid heat, which feels more comfortable. However, they also talk longer to heat your home. It’s also worth noting that changing your home’s heating from a boiler system to a forced-air system (or vice versa) is incredibly difficult and expensive.

How does a boiler system work?

1. Your home’s thermostat signals to your boiler that the temperature has dropped below a set level.
2. The boiler’s burner switches on. Its fuel pump draws oil through a filter to the burner, where the oil becomes a fine spray and ignites.
3. The burner’s combustion chamber becomes hot, heating water in the tank.
4. Hot water or steam travels into your pipes toward your radiators or radiant floor system.
5. The pipes and radiators warm up. This causes the rooms in your home to get warmer.
6. Eventually, the steam condenses (or the water cools). It returns via your plumbing to your boiler’s tank.
7. The boiler continues a cycle of heating water and receiving condensed water back to the tank until your home has warmed to the set temperature.
8. Your thermostat signals the boiler to switch off.

Has the Cubby team serviced your boiler this season?

An oil-fired boiler can provide some of the best-quality heat a home can experience. That is crucial to your family’s comfort in an icy New England winter. But if you haven’t had your annual boiler maintenance visit, your heating system’s performance may be subpar. Even worse, you could suffer a breakdown at the worst possible time.

Don’t wait any longer. Request your service appointment right now and be ready for the cold months to come.