How's Your Hydro?
 

Whether it's water-powered, coal generated or produced by something else, electricity is called "hydro" in Canada. Costs in Ontario have gone up a lot, especially in areas outside major cities. How are the costs of hydro going in your part of Canada? Are you stuck with electric baseboard heaters or do you use something else? Even in relatively warm parts of the country, you still need heating for several months of the year. Would be interesting to have some comments on this for people thinking of moving to Canada or from one province to another.

Re: How's Your Hydro?
 

Never understood the apparent dislike for baseboard heaters. A previous house we renovated had older baseboard heaters, which got upgraded. Each was individually thermostatically controlled, so only the rooms in regular use got much heat. It was a far more efficient and cost-effective way of heating the house than a hot-air furnace and quieter too.

BC hydro costs are pretty reasonable, so I don't generally give the bills much thought. When I lived and worked at a local ski resort, the utility bills were more sobering.

Re: How's Your Hydro?
 

We are in a 1 bedroom apartment, with baseboard heat. 1 in the living room, and 1 in the bedroom, electric stove/oven and washer/dryer. Baseboards are on digital thermostats that are supposed to make them more efficient, but no idea if they really do.
.

This is the first billing cycle since we turned the heat on so don't have that bill yet.

Previous bill with no heat being used:

Basic Charge: 30 days @ $0.18350 /day 5.51

Step 1: 441 kW.h @ $0.08290 /kW.h 36.56

Step 2: 0 kW.h @ $0.12430 /kW.h 0.00

Rate Rider at 5.0% 2.10

GST 2.21

Total: $46.8 for 30 days.


Winter with heat averages about 100-200 kWh more per month on the usage side.


BC Hydro as far as I know has some of the lowest electric rates in North America, so I won't complain.

Baseboard heat is not my favorite, they don't seem to heat evenly, and do add a nice chunk to the bill in winter even at 68F, but we have huge glass windows in the living room, and bedroom and they don't seem to insulate well, lots of draft, and they don't heat the common hallways so there is a nice draft of cold air coming in the door seals, so probably doesn't help to keep the hot air in, and cold out.

Re: How's Your Hydro?
 

It probably depends on just how much heating is needed.

My duplex had individual thermostat controls on the baseboard heaters. Equalised payment for 3 rooms, plus kitchen and bathroom was $200 for cooking, heating, hot water and lights. Nothing else. Just for the upstairs floor.

Our detached house has 5 rooms plus kitchen and 2 bathrooms, all bigger. Equalised payments are $251 and pays for cooking, heating, hot water for a bigger household, and lights plus running of washer/dryer for the needs of four and the running of the AC for much of the summer.

For needs here, the heat pump/air con is far and away cheaper than baseboards.

Re: How's Your Hydro?
 

Apartment dweller here, with baseboard heaters on individual (each room) thermostats.

Im feeling/reaping the benefits of the downstairs unit being occupied: I turned the heating on about a month later then usual this autumn, & have even turned it down, several notches & several times in my bedroom.

Re: How's Your Hydro?
 

Benefit to being on the upper floors....

When we lived in a 2nd floor unit in the middle, there was a significant difference vs ground floor or 2nd floor with a parkade below.

we are technically on the 2nd floor now, but below us is vacant un-heated retail space, and boy do the floors get cold.

Re: How's Your Hydro?
 

Hmm... I'm thinking how you could put Charlee to use apart from being cute..

She may need a little stretch :unsure:

Re: How's Your Hydro?
 

Here, in semi-rural Ontario, the fee is mainly for delivery, it's recently been reduced so we now pay about $180/month for fixed charges and $25 or so for the electricity consumed.

We have a woodstove backed up by a gas (propane) furnace, a gas stove and a gas clothes dryer. The water heater is electric because we were able to install that ourselves, a gas one would have been prohibitively expensive due to the installation cost. The well and sump pumps and the washing machine are electric, I suppose they're the biggest power consumers.

The power supply here is erratic so, like everyone else, we have a generator.

Re: How's Your Hydro?
 

No. No it is not. I've only heard the term "hydro" when in BC. Never in Alberta. Here we call it... electricity.

In answer to your other question, 3 story house, natural gas forced air heating, with in floor electric heating on all tiled floors.

Electric bill is pretty constant year round.

Natural Gas bill is non existent in the summer (in spite of daily used NG grill, 6 burner NG commercial stove, and NG on demand hot water boiler). In the winter the NG bill is formidable (NG fireplace, NG furnace, and a second NG furnace in the detached garage).

Re: How's Your Hydro?
 

4 level split house in Edmonton.
Heating: Natural gas. (water heating as well).
Cost: $78 pm (budgeted amount set up with gas supplier)

Re: How's Your Hydro?
 

My wife's family home in Moncton had a person resident who ran up heating (oil) bills of $800 pm some years ago. The bills were paid by the family out of the inheritance monies, she was not a beneficiary of the will. This was a real source of friction between trustees and beneficiaries (who are all siblings).

Re: How's Your Hydro?
 

It is. The different is amazing (downstairs unit was vacant for the first couple years I lived here).

My remedy for cold floors is (woolly socks &) slippers, preferably "bootee" type ones which cover my ankles :).

Re: How's Your Hydro?
 

Same here, although part of the provincially owned, monopoly electricity generator is called NL Hydro & Hydro power accounts for both a signficant amount of current generation capacity & will be the stone that weighs Newfoundland electricity consumers down for a generation once Muskrat Falls (An ill judged and worse managed hydro project in Labrador) comes on line.

Electricity rates here are forecast to double and thats going to be a big problem in a province with low median incomes & a reliance on resource industries for employment. That resource boom over the past decade has lead to a boom in house construction with many McMansion style homes being built using electric radiation heat because its the cheapest install option. There are definitely going to be be people struggling when rates increase.

As a response, sales of woodstoves and air-to-air heatpumps have been skyrocketing with even a resurgence in oil fired heating. That's what we have - hot water radiation - and I'm glad thats the case. I am just about to pull the trigger on a heat pump set up for my 24x30ft garage as the best option to replace a dead oil furnace.

For comparison purposes our 2400 sq ft (incl developed basement) 3 bed place costs us $111 per month on a equal payment plan. Electricity consumption is primarily drier, underfloor heating in the en-suite, cooking and lighting. Oil consumption averages out somewhere around $300 a month across the year. We're not on an equal payment plan so generally don't have to buy oil between May & October.

Re: How's Your Hydro?
 

The folks where we are in ON certainly call the electricity "Hydro". The wires are held up by "Hydro Towers" since pylons are basically traffic cones - which wouldn't be high enough but would explain the exorbitant car insurance rates.

Re: How's Your Hydro?
 

For decades the quango responsible for generating the power was called Ontario Hydro, even though most of the power was nuclear. It's since been rebranded, privatized, unprivatised and generally ****ed with for reasons of ideology and personal greed but they still call the power "hydro" and it still (in the main) comes from nuclear plants.