Home Heating
Jun 1st 2004 | 5:59 pm
#1
Thread Starter
Forum Regular
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 192
Home Heating
Can someone please advise me on the common types of home heating systems used in Canada and which types are considered
energy efficient and require little maintenance.
The types I encountered while studying in the UK were with the heating elements under the floor or fixed to the wall, and gas heaters, plus some small portable room electric heaters.
Are there heating systems, to save on costs, where you can heat only part of the house ( eg bedrooms) at night, leaving the rest of the house unheated or mildly heated? Will doing this cause water in the pipes ( plumbing ) to freeze in winter?
What's the approx. cost per month for heating about 1000sqft of floor space ?
I've got another question on building materials......I am so used to living in solid brick homes ( that can actually last a century) but I understand many homes in Canada have wooden walls. Is this because they conserve heat better? .....and can they last a lifetime?
I am told when buying a house, make sure it's got copper piping.
Is there anything else I need to take into account with regards to
building materials and construction. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Cheers.
energy efficient and require little maintenance.
The types I encountered while studying in the UK were with the heating elements under the floor or fixed to the wall, and gas heaters, plus some small portable room electric heaters.
Are there heating systems, to save on costs, where you can heat only part of the house ( eg bedrooms) at night, leaving the rest of the house unheated or mildly heated? Will doing this cause water in the pipes ( plumbing ) to freeze in winter?
What's the approx. cost per month for heating about 1000sqft of floor space ?
I've got another question on building materials......I am so used to living in solid brick homes ( that can actually last a century) but I understand many homes in Canada have wooden walls. Is this because they conserve heat better? .....and can they last a lifetime?
I am told when buying a house, make sure it's got copper piping.
Is there anything else I need to take into account with regards to
building materials and construction. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Cheers.
Jun 3rd 2004 | 12:34 pm
#2
Just Joined
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 25
From: St Catharines, Ontario
Hi there,
All Canadian houses have central heating and are usually much more heavily insulated than in the UK. A modern house can have quite reasonable heating costs, while an old, leaky house can be very expensive.
The majority of houses use forced-air heating, with the furnace fired by natural gas (if available), otherwise usually fuel oil (like diesel fuel).
A few houses and a lot of apartments use electric radiators, which tend to be expensive to use.
It's also possible to supplement or entirely heat a house with a woodstove, but it's a lot of work. Wood is very cheap in most areas.
Most heating systems can be made to heat some parts of the house more than others; electric is the easiest with each room having its own thermostat. As long as you don't let any part of the house get close to freezing, there won't be a problem with the pipes. Generally, no part of the house should go below about 11 degrees, to avoid condensation.
A more common approach is to use an electronic thermostat with a timer, that lowers the temperature when people are out or in bed and turns it up in the mornings and evenings.
1000 sq ft. would be a very small house in Canada, although there are a lot of apartments this size. A properly insulated space this size wouldn't cost a lot to heat.
Most houses in Canada are built of wood, simply because it is cheap, easy to work with and readily available. Properly built and maintained, a wooden house can last indefinitely. The important thing is to make sure the wood doesn't rot. Wooden houses are easier to insulate than brick houses, although there are other techniques that do just as well (insulated concrete forms, for example).
I don't know about the piping.
You should always get a house inspected before buying!
Hope this helps.
All Canadian houses have central heating and are usually much more heavily insulated than in the UK. A modern house can have quite reasonable heating costs, while an old, leaky house can be very expensive.
The majority of houses use forced-air heating, with the furnace fired by natural gas (if available), otherwise usually fuel oil (like diesel fuel).
A few houses and a lot of apartments use electric radiators, which tend to be expensive to use.
It's also possible to supplement or entirely heat a house with a woodstove, but it's a lot of work. Wood is very cheap in most areas.
Most heating systems can be made to heat some parts of the house more than others; electric is the easiest with each room having its own thermostat. As long as you don't let any part of the house get close to freezing, there won't be a problem with the pipes. Generally, no part of the house should go below about 11 degrees, to avoid condensation.
A more common approach is to use an electronic thermostat with a timer, that lowers the temperature when people are out or in bed and turns it up in the mornings and evenings.
1000 sq ft. would be a very small house in Canada, although there are a lot of apartments this size. A properly insulated space this size wouldn't cost a lot to heat.
Most houses in Canada are built of wood, simply because it is cheap, easy to work with and readily available. Properly built and maintained, a wooden house can last indefinitely. The important thing is to make sure the wood doesn't rot. Wooden houses are easier to insulate than brick houses, although there are other techniques that do just as well (insulated concrete forms, for example).
I don't know about the piping.
You should always get a house inspected before buying!
Hope this helps.
Jun 3rd 2004 | 4:35 pm
#3
Thread Starter
Forum Regular
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 192
Originally posted by pchapman
Hi there,
All Canadian houses have central heating and are usually much more heavily insulated than in the UK. A modern house can have quite reasonable heating costs, while an old, leaky house can be very expensive.
The majority of houses use forced-air heating, with the furnace fired by natural gas (if available), otherwise usually fuel oil (like diesel fuel).
A few houses and a lot of apartments use electric radiators, which tend to be expensive to use.
It's also possible to supplement or entirely heat a house with a woodstove, but it's a lot of work. Wood is very cheap in most areas.
Most heating systems can be made to heat some parts of the house more than others; electric is the easiest with each room having its own thermostat. As long as you don't let any part of the house get close to freezing, there won't be a problem with the pipes. Generally, no part of the house should go below about 11 degrees, to avoid condensation.
A more common approach is to use an electronic thermostat with a timer, that lowers the temperature when people are out or in bed and turns it up in the mornings and evenings.
1000 sq ft. would be a very small house in Canada, although there are a lot of apartments this size. A properly insulated space this size wouldn't cost a lot to heat.
Most houses in Canada are built of wood, simply because it is cheap, easy to work with and readily available. Properly built and maintained, a wooden house can last indefinitely. The important thing is to make sure the wood doesn't rot. Wooden houses are easier to insulate than brick houses, although there are other techniques that do just as well (insulated concrete forms, for example).
I don't know about the piping.
You should always get a house inspected before buying!
Hope this helps.
Hi there,
All Canadian houses have central heating and are usually much more heavily insulated than in the UK. A modern house can have quite reasonable heating costs, while an old, leaky house can be very expensive.
The majority of houses use forced-air heating, with the furnace fired by natural gas (if available), otherwise usually fuel oil (like diesel fuel).
A few houses and a lot of apartments use electric radiators, which tend to be expensive to use.
It's also possible to supplement or entirely heat a house with a woodstove, but it's a lot of work. Wood is very cheap in most areas.
Most heating systems can be made to heat some parts of the house more than others; electric is the easiest with each room having its own thermostat. As long as you don't let any part of the house get close to freezing, there won't be a problem with the pipes. Generally, no part of the house should go below about 11 degrees, to avoid condensation.
A more common approach is to use an electronic thermostat with a timer, that lowers the temperature when people are out or in bed and turns it up in the mornings and evenings.
1000 sq ft. would be a very small house in Canada, although there are a lot of apartments this size. A properly insulated space this size wouldn't cost a lot to heat.
Most houses in Canada are built of wood, simply because it is cheap, easy to work with and readily available. Properly built and maintained, a wooden house can last indefinitely. The important thing is to make sure the wood doesn't rot. Wooden houses are easier to insulate than brick houses, although there are other techniques that do just as well (insulated concrete forms, for example).
I don't know about the piping.
You should always get a house inspected before buying!
Hope this helps.
PCHAPMAN,
Thanks for the info.
Cheers.
Jun 5th 2004 | 2:40 am
#4
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 695
From: Swift Current, SK
I haven't personally seen any other type of heating other than hot air vented. I've seen houses for sale with woodburners but they seem to be more rural than town based. In our neck of the woods, adverts on www.mls.com will sometimes tell you what the averaged bill is per month and these run from $112 to £200 plus. All of these houses are built between 1914 and around 1950 and mostly haven't been well maintained although the one we bought seems to be fine (and just over 1000 sq feet) but we haven't wintered in it yet.
It's a really difficult question to answer. Some houses will have built in air con, some will have antique furnaces etc etc. The province and supplier will make a difference too. In Swift Current, the city hall supplies water, sewage, garbage and electricity and there's no competition for the elec. In the big cities you'll probably have competition to keep the prices in check (I assume
).
It's a really difficult question to answer. Some houses will have built in air con, some will have antique furnaces etc etc. The province and supplier will make a difference too. In Swift Current, the city hall supplies water, sewage, garbage and electricity and there's no competition for the elec. In the big cities you'll probably have competition to keep the prices in check (I assume
).
Jun 5th 2004 | 4:52 am
#5
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 846
From: Toronto, Ontario
It depends how old your house is. For sure all the new houses built since say the 70's have built in forced air channels whether peopel choose to us ethem or not. For example my in-laws house has them but they choose not to have an air-conditioner because they are so expensive and not really needed depending on how well you can ventilate your house etc. Theirs stays pretty cool even in high 30C weather without A/C compared to our old apartment that turned into an oven at anything over about 25C. They have the wood burning stove but that is used to heat in geenral and isn't hooked up to the forced air system. The house came with the standard baseboard electric heaters which are hooked up to the thermostat. This seems fairly typical of most houses of that era I have been in in southern/central Ontario, the kind of 1960/70's 'ranch' style bungalows.
Our current apartment however is the mainfloor of a house in the high park/bloor west village area of Toronto where the houses were built back in the late 40's early 50's and so are all of older brick construction. You won't find any of the more modern wooden style houses in any of the established areas of cities like Toronto. Some have wooden facia and porches etc but most are of brick construct whether they are the old victorian/edwardian town houses and mansions of yorkville or the annex etc to the post war oens around here. All the heating in this house is original baseboard radiators. So pretty much identicle to UK central heating except for the radiator design which is a much shallower baseboard rather than taking up an entire wall. Ther eis a furnace in the basement that runs off gas and is used to heat the water for both the hot water tanks and the central heating. Ours I believe was designed for apartments so has three seperate hot water tanks which is good as it means the enighbours can't use all the damned hot water hehe.
So there are houses that have hot water heating. In fact if I recall the apartment we had in Newmarket just north of Toronto wasin the old downtown which is about 200 years old so the houses there were either century brick or wood and we had two original hot water radiators as well as newer baseboard electric heaters.
Most of the people hwo own around here rather than rent are all rich (have to be with $700K house prices) and so all have central air conditioning installed and you can see the units at the side of all the houses and so probably have a furnace hooked up to the forced air channels etc.
Our apartment is about 2000sq feet and we only moved in march so missed the deep of winter but even with the heating on low back in March the apartment was ridiculously hot and the hydro bill was not very high.
Drew
Our current apartment however is the mainfloor of a house in the high park/bloor west village area of Toronto where the houses were built back in the late 40's early 50's and so are all of older brick construction. You won't find any of the more modern wooden style houses in any of the established areas of cities like Toronto. Some have wooden facia and porches etc but most are of brick construct whether they are the old victorian/edwardian town houses and mansions of yorkville or the annex etc to the post war oens around here. All the heating in this house is original baseboard radiators. So pretty much identicle to UK central heating except for the radiator design which is a much shallower baseboard rather than taking up an entire wall. Ther eis a furnace in the basement that runs off gas and is used to heat the water for both the hot water tanks and the central heating. Ours I believe was designed for apartments so has three seperate hot water tanks which is good as it means the enighbours can't use all the damned hot water hehe.
So there are houses that have hot water heating. In fact if I recall the apartment we had in Newmarket just north of Toronto wasin the old downtown which is about 200 years old so the houses there were either century brick or wood and we had two original hot water radiators as well as newer baseboard electric heaters.
Most of the people hwo own around here rather than rent are all rich (have to be with $700K house prices) and so all have central air conditioning installed and you can see the units at the side of all the houses and so probably have a furnace hooked up to the forced air channels etc.
Our apartment is about 2000sq feet and we only moved in march so missed the deep of winter but even with the heating on low back in March the apartment was ridiculously hot and the hydro bill was not very high.
Drew
Jun 5th 2004 | 7:34 am
#6
Just Joined
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 25
From: St Catharines, Ontario
Brick houses seem to be more common in Ontario. I'm a British/Canadian dual national who grew up in Halifax; I've just moved to Ontario after a three-year stint in Holland and was surprised at the difference in house style as compared to Nova Scotia.
I seem to recall that true brick houses don't meet code anymore because of their lack of an insulating space. In newly-built "brick" houses, the brick is not structural, but rather a veneer.
Both electric heat and woodstoves were popular during the oil crisis. That's when my family got a stove and we heated our old 1940s house for fifteen years on it.
Hot-water radiators exist on older houses (especially Victorian-era houses), although a lot of them had forced-air retrofitted later. This was the case with our house. I've never seen a recent house with modern radiators (as in Europe) in Canada. Personally, I'm not a big fan (so to speak) of forced air and would prefer good radiators.
Home air conditioning seems to be a feature largely confined to southern Ontario, no surprise there given the heat and humidity.
I noticed that some new, high-end houses have in-floor radiant heating, that sounds like something for me!
I seem to recall that true brick houses don't meet code anymore because of their lack of an insulating space. In newly-built "brick" houses, the brick is not structural, but rather a veneer.
Both electric heat and woodstoves were popular during the oil crisis. That's when my family got a stove and we heated our old 1940s house for fifteen years on it.
Hot-water radiators exist on older houses (especially Victorian-era houses), although a lot of them had forced-air retrofitted later. This was the case with our house. I've never seen a recent house with modern radiators (as in Europe) in Canada. Personally, I'm not a big fan (so to speak) of forced air and would prefer good radiators.
Home air conditioning seems to be a feature largely confined to southern Ontario, no surprise there given the heat and humidity.
I noticed that some new, high-end houses have in-floor radiant heating, that sounds like something for me!
