A furnace is an engineering device that serves heating purposes. The term furnace is used to describe many things. In North America it is used to describe household heating systems based on a central furnace whereas in European countries it simply means industrial furnaces which are used in various industries.

Furnace however is now commonly used to mean an industrial device used for extraction, melting etc. The furnace consist of various parts like heating chamber, blower, feeding chamber, burner etc. The heat can be generated by using fuels or electricity.