Heating
The diagrams below show the heat loss for each room in the house. The heat loss figures are calculated for extreme minimum of outside temperature of -40° C and inside temperature of 20° C. For an average winter temperature of -10° the heat loss is much less.
First Floor Heating Drawing
Second Floor Heating Drawing
All electrical house
The house is all electrical, no gas. If one looks at the history of gas versus electicity prices, then it is easy to note that the gas prices has been steadily going up (see for example, EnergyShop history and forecast in Canada) while the electricity prices down (see for example, Average Retail Prices of Electricity in US, 1960-2005). The explanation is simple. Fossil fuel is getting more and more expensive because it has being exhausted. Due to different ways of producing electricity and competition among them, the electricity prices has always been going down.
Even though in Alberta one third of electricity is generated by burning the natural gas, the most expensive way of producing, the cost of electricity is not climbing as fast as gas. (see Electricity in Canada - Where are prices going?)
Despite of the fact that electrical heating today is still more expensive than gas, this is going to change.
Advantages of all electrical house
Safety
There is no explosive suffocative gas in the house. Sleep well and know that there is no risk of an accidental gas leakage.
Electrical baseboard heating
Electrical baseboard heating is quiet and more hygienic than gas forced air circulation type heating. The idea of forced air heating vents in a floor where dust was happily collected and then blown around the house by a furnace fan is simply unhealthy. Would one rather pay for electrical heating than for medical expenses caused by inhaling dust, leaking gas and its by-products escaped from a furnace exhaust system?
Electrical heating is maintenance free. No furnace, no maintenance. No monthly filter replacements, no cleaning or regular inspection, no worries. The electrical baseboards are very easy to control. They do not require any maintenance.
Zoning is achieved by installed Honeywell programmable thermostats in each room. A controlled temperature in each room allows for more efficient heating.
The instsructions for thermostat programming are on the back of its easily removable front cover.
Cost
| Date | Meter data, kWh |
|---|---|
| Apr 28, 2006 | 72,803 |
| Aug 30, 2006 | 76,912 |
| Oct 30, 2006 | 80,520 |
| Jan 14, 2007 | 90,825 |
| Jan 27, 2007 | 92,334 |
| Feb 25, 2007 | 96,364 |
| Feb 28, 2007 | 96,709 |
| Apr 18, 2007 | 100,982 |
| Total for the year | 28,179 |
At $0.08 per kWh, this is $2,254 a year or $188 a month. The real number is slighly higher due to delivery charges and monthly fees from EPCOR: $2,879 or $239 a month. To confirm, you may use EnergyShop web site.
When comparing to gas heating, please note that this is the price for all electrical consumption, not just heating alone. To roughly estimate just the heating, the summer consumption with no or little heating (from Apr 28 to Oct 30) is 7,717 kWh and winter consumption (from Oct 30 to Apr 18) is 20,745 kWh. Therefore, the heating is roughly the difference between these numbers - 12,745 kWh. EPCOR would charge $1,362 or $113 a month.
Once again, the numbers in the table above show electricity consumption for the entire house, not just heating alone. Unfortunately, the wood stove was not used during this winter. I also did extensive welding year around and the house was heated continuously for 24 hours in winter due to tropical plants. The use of the wood stove in a winter could drop the electricity consumption significantly.