With winter just around the corner and high electricity prices, replacing your heating system with a more efficient and cheaper one seems like an interesting option. The options are diverse and costs fluctuate significantly between them, although the cheapest option may not always be the best for you. Before choosing one, you must take into account the characteristics of your home and evaluate the advantages and limitations of each technology. Next, we review the heating systems with which you can increase the energy efficiency of your home.
Biomass boilers are supplied with organic waste from prunings or olive pits, making it a sustainable, renewable option with net CO2 emissions. According to the OCU, heating a 90-meter house with a biomass stove costs about 545 euros per year.
On the other hand, you need enough space to store the bags of pellets or bones, a duct to evacuate the fumes to the outside and frequently clean the ash tanks and the combustion chamber for effective maintenance.
Heat pumps require a high investment that, however, will be amortized over time on your electricity bill. It is an air-water aerothermal system with heat pumps that heat a circuit in a similar way to a boiler. They can also be used as an air conditioning system in summer.
It is a very efficient system that only consumes 1 kWh of electricity for every 4 kWh of heat it generates and, consequently, its use results in an average cost of 455 euros per year. Among its disadvantages we can mention the need to install external modules.
Conventional gas boilers are the most common heating system in Spain, so replacing it with a condensing gas boiler is a viable alternative to save on your bill. It is a system with 110% performance and an average cost of 683 euros per year, which makes it an efficient and cheap option.
However, condensing boilers need piped access to the gas supply and require an initial investment of 4,000 euros to carry out the complete installation.
This system consumes electricity to heat electrical resistances. They require a very low initial investment, are easy to install and take up very little space. In addition, they are low polluting, since they do not emit more CO2 than that associated with the electrical energy consumed.
Among their drawbacks, they are much less efficient than heat pumps and usually require increases in the installed power for the home. Those who use these heating systems must pay between 1,000 and 1,200 euros annually.
