New

Heating Systems

Learn how gas furnaces, boilers, heat pumps, and electric systems actually produce and distribute heat — then pick up the combustion analysis skills to verify that gas-fired equipment is running safely and efficiently.

Updated Mar 5, 2026

About this course

Most HVAC technicians can replace a part. Fewer can look at a heating system and explain exactly why it's losing efficiency, or catch a combustion problem before it becomes a safety issue. This course closes that gap. You'll start with gas furnaces, covering how fuel burns, how heat transfers to indoor air, and what separates a standard 80% AFUE system from a high-efficiency condensing unit. From there you'll move into hydronic systems, heat pumps, and electric heat — each with its own operating logic, efficiency profile, and failure modes. The final unit is combustion analysis. This is where the course gets practical in a way most training skips. You'll learn what CO, O2, CO2, and stack temperature actually tell you about what's happening inside a burner, and how to read those numbers together to confirm that a gas appliance is safe and tuned correctly. That skill matters on every service call involving gas-fired equipment — furnaces, boilers, and water heaters alike. By the end, you'll have a working mental model for every major heating technology in residential and light commercial buildings. You'll know how each system produces heat, how to evaluate its efficiency, and how to identify when something is wrong. The content builds unit by unit, so prior HVAC coursework helps, but the concepts are explained from the ground up.

Details

Last updated Mar 5, 2026
5 Units, 19 lessons
5 Assessments

Skills you'll gain with this course

Combustion Analysis

Use a combustion analyzer to measure CO, O2, CO2, and stack temperature, and interpret the results to verify that gas-fired equipment is burning fuel safely and at peak efficiency.

Heating System Diagnosis

Identify the operating principles, efficiency characteristics, and common failure points of gas furnaces, boilers, heat pumps, and electric resistance systems.

Efficiency Evaluation

Read and apply efficiency ratings like AFUE and COP to compare heating technologies and explain the real-world cost differences between system types.

Hydronic System Knowledge

Describe how boilers heat and distribute water through hot water and steam systems, including radiant floor heating and the safety devices that protect them.

Heat Pump Operation

Explain how a heat pump reverses the refrigeration cycle to move heat in cold weather, including defrost cycles, auxiliary heat, and the balance point where supplemental heat kicks in.

Syllabus

5 Units • 19 Lessons • 5 Assessments

Ways To Learn Included

Every lesson enables you to learn in a variety of ways.

3 min read
587 words

These gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, play a crucial role in regulating Earth's temperature. But what exactly are they, and how do they work? Let's find out.

Read
Carbon Dioxide
Flashcards
Quiz
What is the primary greenhouse gas responsible for trapping heat?
Carbon Dioxide
Locked In
Great job! That's the correct answer.
Quiz
The earth's atmosphere is composed
Lecture
Listen: Greenhouse gases explained
Podcast
Chat
Arcade
Comic

FAQ

Course thumbnail