Many homes in Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley don’t have connections to gas mains, so they have to rely on electricity to power appliances like the heating systems. Although this does narrow down the options available for central heating, these houses still have several choices. Usually, it comes down to an electric furnace or a heat pump. The choice isn’t a simple one, because there are additional considerations to make that will also affect the cooling for the home.
Is there a clear choice between the two? No, because heating is never the same between two different homes and several factors must go into consideration. Both electric furnaces and heat pumps have advantages and disadvantages, and ironically the decision may come down to the … air conditioning system.
It’s hard to say goodbye to old friends. You probably don’t think of the HVAC system in your house as an “old friend,” even though it has provided your house with years of comfort. It’s not a flashy piece of equipment, and most of it is hidden. But saying goodbye to it does mean paying for a new one—and you don’t want to do that until it’s necessary.
One of the odd troubles we face in Southern California when it comes to home heating is that it’s easy to let a heater stay around for far too long in a house. When people don’t rely too often on a system like a gas furnace, they often don’t consider when it’s old enough that it needs to be replaced.
Southern California has gone through a bizarre and sometimes unfortunate hot-cold winter season this year. The heat has come from unfortunate wildfires in many areas of the state. The cold has been a nippier December than usual, and we can still anticipate more days ahead when heating systems will need to do their jobs. It’s true we don’t tax our heaters as much as homes do in Minnesota, but they still have to function to help us enjoy our lives to the fullest.
