There are more than one type of heating boiler used regularly in homes and businesses. The biggest differences in the heating boiler units will be in the way they produce the heat supply. You will also find some differences in the way they are fueled.
A forced air heating boiler is the most commonly used of these devices. These units are the least expensive of the many different types of devices that are used in this capacity.
They provide heat by warming air in a furnace and then pushing that warm air into the rooms of the structure by way of ductwork. Their biggest drawback is that they force dust and allergens around the structure with the heated air. The biggest plus they have going for them is that they can provide heated air and they can provide cool air so there is not a need for two different systems in the house.
Radiant heating is another style of unit that is popular Geen warm water in homes and businesses. Generally this type of heating is done through tubes placed in the floor of the room. The heated fluid flows through these series of tubes and they have heat radiating from them. These systems are very slow to heat a room that has become chilled. Controlling the temperature of the room is harder with this system.
For the people that choose to do so the piping can be placed in the ceiling. Placing the piping in the ceiling does not seem to make the unit capable of heating the structure any faster than when the pipes are located in the flooring of the rooms in homes. The baseboard system has pipes that are generally made of aluminum placed in the baseboards around the rooms of the structure. There are fins attached to these pipes that allow the heat to dissipate more evenly and over a larger area. Hot water is forced through the pipes in the baseboards and this causes the rooms to be heated. As the hot air rises from the floor level it warms the rest of the room.
These baseboard units are very slow to create a temperature increase when one is needed. They are even slower than the radiant heating units at warming a room to the desired temperature. They do however allow the room to maintain its temperature quite well. They are also very efficient and very quiet units. These units do require separate air conditioning devices in the home and the air conditioning units would require separate duct work for them to operate.
All of these appliances have one thing in common. They can be operated on several different fuel sources. The people that have access to pipe natural gas into their homes find this fuel to be cheaper than some of the others. Electricity is used to power some of these units and so is propane gas. Propane units are very popular in places that do not have piped mains gas coming into their homes. There are some devices that operate on wood or coal.