The Ultimate Form of Heating
As its name suggests, "ducted gas heating" uses a gas fired furnace to warm air that is then distributed throughout the entire home by a system of ducts. The duct system consists of one large duct, called a Return Air, which is located near the centre of the home and continuously draws all the air out of the home and into the heater. From there, the warmed air is returned to every corner of the home by a network of smaller ducts.

Within the heater, the air is blown between a series of large, flat heating elements that protrude into the airstream. Called a Heat Exchanger each of these elements is actually a very thin chamber with a long, thin gas burner inside. So, as the burner heats the sides of the chamber from the inside, the airstream passing by on the other side is warmed. This keeps the air being warmed totally separate from the combustion process and ensures that it remains clean and fresh.

Throughout this whole process, the air temperature is monitored by a thermostat which adjusts the output of the heater to maintain the desired temperature at all times. This high level of sophistication has made gas ducted heating the ultimate heating system but, in those early days, it also made it extremely expensive. Despite this high cost however, it was still very popular and then, as now, this appeal was based on three factors.

The Ultimate in Convenience
Ducted systems heat the entire home giving people back the freedom to use all of their home instead of huddling together in just one or two rooms. This is especially important for families. Parents can relax knowing their children are warm and comfortable wherever they roam. Getting up to them on cold wintry nights is no longer a problem and many of the regular winter illnesses are a thing of the past. Ducted heating also saves on valuable living space. No longer must the heating unit sit in the living room. A ducted heater can be placed outside the building, or in the roof.

The Ultimate in Control
To warm the entire home, the system is matched to the volume of air within the home so all of it will pass through the heater every 15 minutes. This means the system can provide warmth and comfort for the entire home more rapidly than other forms of heating and without the need to overheat any one area. Add to this the flexibility of Networker timer control and the homeowner can have whatever temperature they want whenever they want.

The Ultimate in Safety
Ducted heating is arguably the safest form of heating available. With no exposed flames or very hot surfaces inside the house for children or the elderly to touch or fall against and highly sophisticated protection systems built into the heaters themselves, ducted gas systems have a safety record second to none. Brivis have taken this dedication to safety even further with an extensive pre-testing program for every heater and with such exclusive Brivis features as the AFRO, a device designed to instantly shut the system down should anything out of the ordinary happen to the flame.

Today, it's also an affordable option
What started as a luxury option for the rich has, through the work of people such as F.A. O'Brien become steadily more and more affordable. The initial breakthrough came when F.A. O'Brien designed the compact heat exchanger. That improved efficiency dramatically and made mass production techniques possible. Constant refinements to the heaters since then and reductions in the price of ducting and natural gas have reduced the price even further. So, today, the entire home can be climate controlled for around the same cost as two space heaters.

Tomorrow, it will be an Essential Option
As lifestyles change people are recognising the need to heat the entire home. In the past, heating has often been an afterthought but today, it is just as essential to good domestic design as is lighting. In fact, installing permanent heating in the main rooms and resorting to expensive and inefficient portable heaters, fan heaters, electric blankets, etc everywhere else, is like having light fittings in those rooms and using candles everywhere else. Few people ever assess the true cost of this makeshift approach. They know it is ineffective and expensive but they don't actually add up all these heating costs and compare them to a ducted system. If they did, they would often find that all these inadequate heating options are actually costing more.

... and an Ecological Responsible One
In the beginning, the Brivis commitment to ducted gas heating was based on a belief in its superior performance but, today concern for the environment is just as important. Greenhouse emissions are a serious problem for wood and oil burning heaters and electricity is often generated by burning fossil fuels, but natural gas is recognised as a very environmentally friendly fuel. It burns so completely it leaves almost no residue and has little or no impact on the atmosphere. Even recovering it from deep in the earth is sympathetic to the ecology with no need to cut down forests, dam rivers or devote huge areas to mining.

Whether your concerned about efficiency and reliability, installation and maintenance, or the actual running costs of a gas system, our heating specialists at Brivis South Africa make it their business to have all the answers for you.