Many people ask the question, what is the difference between commercial boilers and a residential boiler system? Some people believe that the difference between these items is the quality of the device. Some people believe that if you buy something designed for commercial use you will get a higher quality product, but the truth is that the quality of commercial boilers and residential systems is the same. The difference between the two systems is the size of the units.
These systems are sized by the number of BTUs (British Thermal Units) and not the actual size of the unit. A BTU is a British thermal unit. This is a way of measuring the amount of heat or cooling capacity a device has. One British thermal unit is said to be equal to the amount of heat that would be produced by a single match. For these units to be described as commercial boilers, they must have at least a three hundred thousand BTU device. Any appliance under three hundred thousand BTUs is considered suitable for residential use.
Both types of units can work with several different heat sources. The main types of fuels used in these two device sizes are propane gas, natural gas, and electricity. In the past, coal-fired units were quite popular, as were wood burners and oil burners. Heating oil became obsolete due to the price of heating oil and coal became obsolete as a fuel due to the difficulty of storing and lighting the unit with the material. The wood burners worked fairly cheaply, but the difficulty in getting firewood and having someone to maintain the fire in the oven made wood obsolete.
Natural gas is most often used in commercial industries because they can have this fuel piped directly to the unit in question. The fuel is cost effective and it is extremely convenient. In commercial applications, convenience and ease of use are often more important factors than the cost of an item. Some residential areas do not have piped natural gas lines, so these people will choose the units that run on electric power to be the units that run on propane. All devices are efficient and less expensive to operate than alternative devices.
Forced air heating units are the most popular in homes, and in commercial settings, forced air systems are also very popular. When a commercial business has multiple rooms or offices that require hot or cooled air, forced air devices are chosen for this job. The forced air device is centrally located and ducts are installed in the walls or ceilings to transport the hot air to each different section. These units are efficient, but they can be a bit noisy. They are quick to raise or lower the temperature of an area and different sections of the property have the ability to adjust the temperature in their space through the use of closable vents and thermostat controls.
