DIY guideHeating system

What heats your house?

Find what makes the heat (a furnace, a boiler, a heat pump or electric) and how it reaches the rooms: vents, radiators or baseboards.

7 steps

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Vents in the floor or walls that blow air: forced air. Radiators or long baseboards under the windows: hot water or electric.
Follow the vents or the pipes to the basement, a closet or the attic. A furnace has big ducts; a boiler has pipes.
A meter on a pipe outside means gas. A big tank in the basement or the yard means oil or LP. No flue and no tank: electric.
A unit outside that runs in winter too, not just summer, is a heat pump. Many have a furnace as backup.
Hot-water baseboards have pipes and a boiler. Electric ones have no pipes, and a dial on the wall or the heater.
Note what it is and photograph its label. It's the first thing a pro asks.
Leave the furnace's panels, the burner and the boiler's covers shut. A gas or fuel smell: leave and call from outside. For a service or a fault, ask Handyman for a heating pro.

Handyman says: Leave it shut. I'll find a heating pro.

Free for every home. Handyman asks a few questions, then books a pro it trusts.