not2old

what about one of those quartz or infra red portable heater which they say will heat 800 - 1000 sq ft?

Best Infrared Heater Guide - Reviews and Comparison 2015

I've seen them on special at less than $100. Don't know what Canadian Tire or Home Hardware or Home Depot sells them for

Canada’s best deal on Lifesmart 1500W Infrared 4 Element Heater-Walnut Heaters 817223014819 -ontario-

or a deluxe model with remote control

http://www.factorydirect.ca/Canada-O...ARED_HEATER_/0

Souvy

My word but some of you people really are being taken roughly from behind!

The Hydro Quebec bill I just paid was $131. That's for two months. The actual cost was $326 (incl. tax) but we're on equalised payments. It's always $131.

Some years we get a refund because we've paid too much.

Atlantic Xpat

Electric baseboard heaters are very common here, particularly in low to mid range new builds as they are cheap to buy and install for the builder. There is a tendency towards air heat pumps for higher end houses although it's still easy to find a >$500k 2500 sq ft+ house with electric baseboards.

When the ill-conceived-and-terribly-managed Muskrat Falls Hyrdo project comes on line in 2017..8...9...whenever electric heating in Newfoundland will essentially be unaffordable as electricity rates will skyrocket. I expect a bigger move to wood stoves at that point.

We have hot water radiation baseboard heaters. I'm pleased we have oil fired hot water radiation but the baseboard radiators seem cheap, flimsy and don't look particularly nice. They seem to work OK.

Souvy

My son's place is electric but he has a cast iron wood stove in the basement. There is a coil of tubing on top of it, venting into the living space at one end and attached to a fan at the other. Seems to work quite well. Not sure what would happen in a power cut though. Ditto his water supply (well).

I should probably buy him a generator.

not2old

for those of you out there on low income - here in Ontario there is

Ontario Electricity Support Program (OESP) | OEB

Is this available in other parts of the country?

BristolUK

I imagine something of some sort exists. In NB there's a one off $100 for those on incomes under $28k. A few years ago they did something more generous but the size of the kitty meant early applications got paid and later, no less 'deserving' applications didn't.

Other assistance available for 'emergency' situations, but it doesn't seem that hard to meet that definition if on social assistance or similar level.

dave_j

I shouldn't be surprised but clearly am.
Of all the options available for heating a house, baseboard heaters come close to the bottom. Placing them in new builds is obviously the prime choice for builders since it will maximize profits. I think the phrase 'caveat emptor' applies here.
As stated before, insulation, draught free double glazed windows, and doors are king here so if its a new build pay attention to insulation and quality of the windows.
Where heat losses can be minimised and controlled then any form of heating will suffice, but you don't need much in the way of a draught to lose the 1.25kW that JSmith has in his room. For those of us from the UK imagine heating a cold room with a 1 bar electric fire (without the radiative component). Not much fun is it.
Heat pumps work well in moderately cold areas but they become increasingly inefficient as ambient temperatures fall. Heat pumps that extract their heat from the ground are less affected by outside temperatures but of course are more expensive to install.
Wherever possible, gas central heating is to be preferred because the available energy far exceeds the limitation of the home electricity supply and it's cheaper, but again more expensive to install.

Juggernaut1064

I have water base board but being a condo the heat is part of my condo payment as one gas furnace heats the whole building. It has a thermostat outside so when the temp drops the boiler increases the heat. Never been cold at all.
I did visit the unit above me and saw a fireplace which the previous owner removed from my unit totally so hopefully this year i'll get a nice modern wood burner installed seeing as theres a chimney pipe in the corner of my living room that i can connect into.
Down side is i had to buy a humidifier as the air seems very very dry in my condo !

withabix

Electric heat is BC is comparatively cheaper than other Provinces.

'Efficiency' depends on how you define it - electric heaters are close to 100% efficient, because the heating elements are just basically a giant resistor, which converts electrical energy into heat energy. You can never lose energy, only convert it in to another form of energy, so if your baseboard heaters are silent and the elements do not glow red, all of the electrical energy is being converted to heat energy. You can't get more efficient than that!

If you compare that to a gas-fired warm air system, energy is converted to sound, heat is lost out of the flue and you are also heating unoccupied spaces. Not efficient!

The standard basic baseboard heaters are rubbish, but you can get ones with small fans in to move the heat more efficiently.

A lot of basements in houses have them in addition to the blown-air systems, because the blown-air ducts in basements are in the ceiling and warm air rises......

My basement is bloody cold in the winter, but comfortably cool in the summer, being half-buried and therefore 50% concrete walls.

MarkG

Electric heater: burn gas to generate heat to produce steam to turn a turbine that generates electricity that's transported many miles over cables, through transformers, and on to your house, where whatever energy is left gets converted mostly back to heat.

Gas heater: burn gas to generate heat to heat the house.

Obviously the overall efficiency changes if you're generating the electricity from hydro or nuclear plants, rather than fossil fuels.

Tootlepootle

We have baseboards on the top floor, for bedrooms and bathrooms as well as underfloor heating in the bathroom. The key is being able to shut doors. WE don't turn on the baseboards in the master as its too hot.
There are also some baseboards in our basement but they are only as an extra to the warm air system. Have you checked your thermostats to make sure they work properly? We discovered a faulty one so it doesn't actually talk to the baseboard at all! Check the baseboard itself as they also have built in thermostats sometimes.

Pulaski

..... Then, if mounted on an external wall, a substantial part of the heat leaves your living space, which is no better than any gas heat that goes up the flue, and quite possible worse.

Our gas fired central heating and AC system has a plastic plumbing pipe for an exhaust flue - so a modern(ish - ours is 18 years old) loses very little heat up the flue.

dbd33

That's be a "high efficiency" furnace. At the last house the chimney needed repair, it was cheaper to lop it off at the roofline and install a HE furnace than it was to fix it and retain the mid-efficiency furnace.

withabix

You forgot the bit where they use energy to pump gas over thousands of kilometres, after fracking it out of the ground, compressing it...etc...

Of course, thermal power stations are something less than 30% efficient normally. In BC, 90-95% of electricity comes from HEP plants, which is why it is significantly cheaper than most places.

Losses in transmission are low because the transmission lines operate at extremely high voltage, low current before being transformed down to low voltage, high current locally.

At a domestic level in BC, electric heating can be more efficient, even more so if you consider that you don't have to heat the whole house....

A lot of new houses are still built with electric water heaters too.

MarkG

Irrelevant, since it will typically apply to both houses and gas-fired power stations. Unless you build your power station on a gas well.