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Title
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Heating Spaces
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Type
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Primary: Mission Briefing Article
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Operation
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Infinite Potential
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Mission:
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Mission 5: Energy Security
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Print Page
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98
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Subjects
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Personal and social issues | Humans and the environment | Science and technology | Energy technology | Science
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Grades
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5 | 6 | 7 | 8
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Keywords
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home, heat, natural gas, fuel, oil, propane, electricity, wood stove, heater, energy source, cost, expenditure, expense, house, central warm-air furnace, burn, thermal energy, transfer, air, combustion, fan, vent, electrical resistance, electrical energy, inefficient, efficiency, convert, architecture, architectural, design, renewable source, solar heat, passive
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Duration
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00:15:00 (HH:MM:SS)
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Audience
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Teachers | Elementary Grades | Junior High
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Created On
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4/22/2009
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Copyright
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Team Highlight photo: Peter Haydock, The JASON Project; Heat lamp photo: Steve Parker/Wikimedia Commons; Earth photo: NASA Earth Observatory
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From: Infinite Potential Mission 5: Energy Security (pp: 98) |
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Heating Spaces How is your home heated? What are the advantages and disadvantages of various methods? Learn more about heating your home as well as space structures in this article. |
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How is your home heated? Do you depend upon natural gas as a heating fuel? If not, perhaps you use oil, propane, or electricity. Some people even depend entirely upon the warmth of wood stoves. No matter which energy source you use, there is a cost to operate your heater, and sometimes this cost can really add up. For most households, heating is the largest energy expense.  |  |
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| Aware of heating costs and efficiency, Constance Adams incorporates a variety of energy-saving strategies into her architectural designs. She uses renewable and inexhaustible sources of energy, such as sunlight, to help meet heating demands. She also considers the role of natural surroundings such as earth materials, to help insulate structures. Additionally, she uses passive solar heating to reduce energy demand. |
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|  | Electrical Heat
Electrical heat is the next most common heating method, meeting almost one-third of the United States space-heating demands. Unlike the heat produced by the burning of fossil fuels, using electrical resistance to transform electrical energy into thermal energy is a process that is nearly 100 percent efficient. However, the steps that generate and transmit electricity to your home are inefficient, resulting in energy losses as high as 70 percent. So by the time it is transformed into thermal energy, electrical heating can be more expensive than the on-site burning of fossil fuels.
Natural Gas More than half the homes in the United States meet their space-heating needs with natural gas. Most of these homes have a central warm-air furnace. Natural gas burned within this device produces thermal energy and transfers it to the air. The warm air is then circulated through the home using fans and vents.
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