What is the best type of home heating system?
What type of heating system is most beneficial? Looking for the best heating systems for new builds.
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Choosing the best heating system for a home depends on a lot of factors, and probably the most important is location. That will determine what the cheapest and most reliable heating fuel is.
60% of U.S. homes are heated with natural gas, 25% with electricity. In Canada, 47% of homes are heated with natural gas, and 37% are heated with electricity. The rest are a mix of wood, pellets, oil and propane, and a very small amount of people heat their homes with of coal.
That covers the fuel sources, and costs will vary by region. But I suspect your question is likely about what heat delivery system is best for a home, so first I would look on our page about how to create a comfortable home –
How to design a home for thermal comfort
You will see on that page how there is a lot more to home comfort that we currently consider, and what a difference it can make if you design your home with comfort in mind. We will all have preferences, but from a physiological point of view, the most comfortable heat source is radiant. That is the exchange of heat between our bodies and the surfaces of a home. Various forms of radiant heat can be provided by all those fuel sources.
As for sizing your heating equipment, the amount of heat you will need to provide will be determined by the amount of heat you lose, so a well-insulated and airtight home saves money in fuel use, and often times in allowing for a reduced size of equipment.
Did you have a preferred heat delivery system in mind, or fuel source? And where are you located? We can help more with a bit more info. You can also learn more about the best home heating systems in our guide pages
Hello. We are located in the southeast corner of British Columbia. We live in a town called Cranbrook. We have temperatures as low as minus 30 and as high as plus 42.
We are currently building a home. We are trying our best to be conscious of the energy options. We have an Energy Advisor helping us. Initially, we considered in-floor heating in the basement and pellet stove on the main floor. The house is not very big, 1600 sqft with a basement. All our living space is on the main level.
We have been looking into a boiler system with radiators. The costs are substantial.
Hi Jennifer,
If I understand correctly, you’re doing a radiant floor in the basement but it isn’t living space? That seems costly for no reason, since the benefit of radiant heat is all about delivering comfort to occupants; it won’t be more energy-efficient. In fact, in your case it may actually be ‘less’ efficient since increasing the temperature of the concrete will increase the rate of heat loss to the ground. If you just want to keep the basement warm for uses such as laundry, access to mechanical systems and storage, then I’d consider sticking a few electric radiators down there and pocketing the savings compared installing a radiant heating system, which will be in the thousands.
And since you live in British Columbia electric is your best choice in our opinion, see here the advantages of heating with electricity.
Over 90% of energy in British Columbia comes from renewable resources, so heating with electricity would be the greenest heating system for you, though I can’t speak to pricing for a couple of reasons -the price of natural gas in BC ranges from $1.50 to almost $7.00, Secondly, there is graduated pricing for electricity, so the most you use the more it costs.
But here’s a life hack for you – if a pretty obvious one – invest more in insulating will help keep your costs down, but since BC bumps you up to a higher price range, if you build a super insulated home you may be able to keep your actually heating rate lower.
We built a demo house in Quebec that is all electric, and the entire electrical load (stove, water heater, lighting, heating) comes to just over $500 per year. Read more about the LEED Platinum Edelweiss house heating and electrical systems here.
If it were me, I would only do radiant heating on floors I occupy as living space, and only on floors that are in direct contact with the ground like basements or slab on grade floors. For wood framed and finished upper floors I would not personally ad radiant as it would just assume the temperature of the home, so it would be niether too hot nor too cold. Even picky little Goldilocks would be pleased.
If it’s a small home and a reasonably open concept, I would likely knock it out of the park with insulation and airtightness so I don’t need to ad much heat, then I would take that money I saved by not installing a radiant floor in the basement and I’d buy a mini-split ductless heat pump which operates at 3 times the efficiency, and I may stick a tiny radiator in each bedroom just to be sure. That way I get air conditioning out of the deal too. This to me would be the greenest, cheapest and most sensible heating system.
You will see all that stuff listed in the Edelweiss House link above, if you want any further advice don’t hesitate to ask.