I know this may be a dumb question. But

What are the available sources for both heating an cooking in Canada and whats the most popular.
Here in the UK its natural gas heating and an even split between natural gas and electric for cooking.

This is a part of a bigger question. What is the average cost to cook and heat with in a normal sized 4 bedroom house in BC with an average ? sized family. Just trying to work out what the utility prices would be in Canada.

tia
ubdai

Depends where you live. Mains natural gas is not available everywhere. I live in a city of 250,000 people and there is no mains gas. Some people use propane, probably mainly for cooking, and some oil. Many, like me, are all electric. That's fine in Quebec because we have cheap electricity (97% hydroelectric). The same is true of BC.

Mains gas for cooking (stoves) seems fairly rare. The appliances are considerably more expensive to buy anyway - and for whatever reason, the locals favour electric stoves/hobs, etc. As and when and if I ever get the new kitchen of my dreams, I shall require a gas hob. There is gas to the house somewhere - I'll leave the logistics of bringing it my kitchen to someone else!!

I currently mentally average $100 each for gas and electric bills a month. Summer electric bills have been as low as $40. The winter gas bill in February peaked at $176.

Rare but doable. When we moved to this house, in the middle of nowhere, there was only an electric cooker. We bought a gas one from Sears, I think it was about $800 but you can search their website for options, this was one of the more expensive. There's no gas line, of course, so we had a propane company install a tank and their installer rejetted the stove for propane. Most, probably all, stoves sold in Canada can work with natural gas or propane, the jets are different because propane burns hotter. It works fabulously well, for what anyone suffers with an electric hob I can't imagine.

The one snag we ran into is that propane companies are reluctant to come and set up a tank for just a stove. After 18 months here I can see why, we've used three quarters of a tank that cost $90 to fill in the first place, the petrol to deliver must now cost more than we paid for the propane.

Heating costs seem to depend on whether you have a Thermopump or not. With one I would roughly say that you can almost half your heating bills.

We've been looking at average sized houses recently, those without a TP average $200-$220 a month and with around $100 (Hydro Québec).

What is a Thermopump?

ubdai

The English word is actually "Heat Pump". Here's more detailed description:

http://home.howstuffworks.com/question49.htm

But dont you spend what you save on heating on AC in the summer? ( you cant have a thermopump without AC can you?)

The AC is basically the heat pump working in reverse.

There is no obligation to have it on...this summer being a case in point.

heat pumps are expensive though...we were quoted $12k for a "typical installation"

Also, there are different types, some use a coil winding through the ground for heat transfer, but if you can do it immersed in water (fast flowing well , or a lake) those are more efficient.


Anyway, as usual there are a bunch of very informative canadian government websites that covers all the heating / cooling and appliance options;

http://www.oee.nrcan.gc.ca/residenti...ing.cfm?attr=4
http://www.oee.nrcan.gc.ca/residenti...ion.cfm?attr=4
http://www.oee.nrcan.gc.ca/residenti...dex.cfm?attr=4
http://www.canren.gc.ca/default_en.asp

Very vigorous shagging.

Lucky for some.

Maybe just the pump then, Steve. Maybe just the pump

Hopefully my "main pump" will be repaired sometime in the next four weeks.

Let's hope so my friend. Hope all goes well.

Hope so