The snow first arrived in early November, reminding us that our colder seasons certainly require some adjustments to our log homes and cabins. It’s also essential to install a good heating system to ensure optimal heating in each room in your home.
Quebec’s climate is particular and demands our log home and timber frame craftsmen and architects, like with any type of home, demonstrate ingenuity and efficiency in their energy planning. They must be able to predict the variations in temperature from the warmest months to the coldest months, and ensure to offer different heating methods that take into consideration not only nature’s whims, but also the constraints of building a wooden home!
Here are just a few heating methods to consider when planning your future log home, or when planning renovations.
1. Opt for heated floors in your log home
Heated floors may be intimidating for some. They’re definitely an underutilised method due to the initial cost of installation. Some may believe that it’s only possible to heat ceramic flooring, but in fact, you can heat almost any type of flooring if you use the right systems.
Moreover, a multitude of options for generating heat are available to you: electricity, gas, bienergy, thermo pump or even an interior or exterior water tank… this last one is what we use to heat our offices. An eco friendly option allowing us to recover wood chips and scraps and transform them into biomass!
If you have to choose just a few strategic placements to help fit your budget, we recommend you invest in heated flooring for your bathrooms and your basement. It’s a must-have for our bathrooms, as it offers increased comfort and a pleasant warmth for your feet at all times. In the basement, whether it be in our log cabins or our high end homes, we offer this option from the start as it helps combat moisture, ensures optimal use of the space, and allows you to take advantage of the whole layout of the house. Moreover, it’s much faster to get your toes toasty with heated flooring than with any other type of heating, as heat naturally rises, leaving our poor toes frozen.
2. Choose the comfort and style of a wood, gas or pellet fireplace
There is no lack of options when it comes time to put in a fireplace for your wooden home. In fact, based on your geographical location, it’s possible you may be limited by know that there exist the following types of heating, which fit seamlessly into the design and conception of our Scandinavian style homes:
- The wood, slow combustion or ambient fireplace: built-in, with openings on two sides or in oasis mode. Wood-burning fireplaces offer incomparable warmth, a pleasant flame to look at and give off a sweet smell of comfort. Of course, they require the purchase or preparation of wood, chimney maintenance and various safety devices, but in terms of autonomy, it is certainly the most interesting option. It is even possible to integrate a wood stove, which can heat the house, and in the event of a power failure, help feed the family!
- The propane or natural gas fireplace: A gas or natural gas fireplace can be a great fit for the master bedroom or even in a bathroom, but you must first make sure that your wooden house is in a location where this type of system can be hooked up. Some houses can be equipped with propane tanks, which offer a certain autonomy, as long as the propane does not run out. This option is most popular with our customers, due to the remote location of many of our creations.
- The electric fireplace : Simple to install and use, the electric fireplace is used mainly for ambiance, as an auxiliary heater in a small room or a place that is unsuitable for a wood fireplace. This option can be interesting, but, you guessed it, does not offer any autonomy in the event of a power failure!
- The pellet fireplace : efficient and with over 40 hours of autonomy, the pellet fireplace offers pleasant warmth, requires little maintenance and allows you to step away for a while, but you still need access to electricity for the wind tunnels. It’s a practical fireplace, but lacks charm – its flame isn’t the prettiest.
3. Know how to combine different heating methods
Few people know that the use of a thermo pump at temperatures below -10C, saves in terms of energy consumption, but the thermopump alone does not provide enough heat to warm cottages and houses in Quebec. It is therefore necessary to know how to combine different heating methods to ensure a warm, comfortable environment, adapted to our reality.