No. It's quite big and made even bigger by the absence of a furnace. The last house was an above-grade townhouse. Half of the ground floor was taken up by an integral garage. The furnace room took up a lot of the rest.

Better there than on a kitchen wall as they seem to be in new UK houses...

BC.

Those are just the 3 main types of heating I have personally seen, the forced air is usually natural gas.

BC lower mainland winters tend to be mild, and for me I can usually avoid having to use too much heat. So far haven't needed it yet.

Townhouses are built up, not out I guess?

Our furnace physically takes up about 3x6'. When the basement is refinished around it the plan is to end up with the furnace and waterheater and chimney in its own room, probably about 8 x 12...not sure what code says about clearances etc. That still leaves plenty of room for the family room, laundry, extra bathroom, not to mention the garage.


Too much extra space to have to keep clean I suspect now I think about it... I'd rather live with that than baseboard heaters to arrange the furniture around, although of course you have to do that to some extent with the air registers anyway.

Ultimately, ideally people should look for whatever is going to be cheapest to run in the long term, and there will be provincial climate and cost variables in that equation.

I'm having a snow tyre moment. This is something else that has not crossed my mind during two decades in Canada.

We have underfloor heating in the basement, and forced air (gas) upstairs.

We have just installed a woodburner stove in the basement as we have so much timber lying around in the garden it is a shame to see it all rotting away. We had a woodburner in the UK for over 20 years and loved it despite the dust. Just waiting for the roofers to finish and then we can light it up for the first time, yeah!!

You know the insurance company might frown on that.

Well sir, we had a new roof for just a day and poof there it was gone.

All done above board and photos and details with the insurance company, and green light from them so if anything happens at least we are covered!!!!

Weren't you shopping for snow tires recently...

We have to do both, not much wall space left really.

Whats behind those heaters if we took them off? Is it baseboard or wall usually?

I think they are usually put on after the drywall goes up.

Yes. The Element now has snow tyres, the old tyres were worn out and it's not a car with much traction so I thought we'd give them a go. Snow tyres are something I first heard of on this board. Several people, neighbours and colleagues, have asked why the car now has black wheels. They seem nonplussed by the whole idea. I think snow tyres, and arranging furniture around the heat ducts, might be as much of an ethnic thing as Marmite.

Does that mean I've gone native?

You mean you can set fire to your roof and the insurance is OK with it?

Hmm, so big gaps in the baseboards. We may consider it when we redecorate, depends on what the workman says.