new Direct Vent Furnaces

Old wall and floor furnaces, or the old free-standing furnaces, are largely outdated and unsafe. But there are now new efficient direct vent gas furnaces that may overcome such disadvantages.

New efficient gas space heaters aren't subject to the heat loss of central systems and are great for zone heating strategies and energy savings, or for hard-to-heat basements, carriage houses, bonus rooms or in-law suites.

Space heating
Zone heating involves a selective heating of the different areas of the house; different rooms or parts of the will benefit from different heating charges, according to schedules and their use. The zone heating approach can be a way of getting huge energy savings. See: Heating and cooling zones for your home.

Direct Vent Furnaces

Direct vent furnaces are compact and much more inexpensive than central furnaces. They are ductless and can be powerful enough to heat a well insulated small home.

Rinnai Direct Vent Wall furnaces are the most popular model in the market. They are sold online in big retailers like Amazon (see, for customer reviews: Rinnai ES38-N Direct Vent Wall Furnace, Natural Gas).

Direct vent Gas Furnace Though very similar in their look to older wall gas furnaces, new direct vent furnaces are particularly safe and much more efficient. Their gas flame is sealed inside the unit, without possibility of contacting the indoor air. The combustion air is drawn into the chamber from outside (through the direct wall vent), and all combustion gases are vented directly to the outside.

Many of these units include features like sparked pilot ignition, intermittent pilot lights and most of all new efficient blowers to circulate room air and to ensure consistent heating output.

A zone heating strategy using a gas space heater
Gas stoves, direct vent wall furnaces or fireplace inserts are potent enough to heat the most used rooms, or the core of a house, or even a small building. It depend on its layout, but it's possible... And that main heat system can be combined combined with small electric heaters (a source of supplemental heat, in this case) to the heating needs of many homes.

safety

New gas room heaters/furnaces are sealed combustion units: no room air is required to feed the combustion and no combustion gas is released into the room - a warranty of safety.

Note: Old gas floor furnaces, recessed wall furnaces and freestanding gas room heaters, involve unsafe controls and are intrinsically inefficient. Their efficiency/AFUE is often below 70% or even 60%... If you are using an old gas room heater, test it for CO2 and draft. Old floor furnaces can easily cause dangerous back-drafting problems.

Direct-vent wall furnaces Installation

Direct vent furnace installation New direct-vent wall furnaces are easy to install, as long as a wall terminal hole around 3''/8 cm – linking the unit to outdoors – is viable.

Alternatives to direct-Vent furnaces

There are, anyway, several alternatives to these ductless gas furnaces. All depends on your goals. Solutions like pellet stoves, wood stoves or gas stoves are between these other alternatives.