Electric baseboard heating

Electric baseboard heater installation, replacement and thermostat upgrades in Edmonton, with proper sizing, circuits and safe placement.

Where baseboards make sense

Baseboard heaters are simple: no ducts, no moving parts and individual control in every room. They are a common choice for finished basements where the furnace cannot keep up, additions and garage conversions, cabins, and older homes built with electric heat.

Each room becomes its own zone with its own thermostat. Close the door to a spare room and turn it down, and you stop paying to heat it. In a basement suite, separate zones let each occupant set their own comfort.

• Basement developments and secondary suites
• Additions, sunrooms and garage conversions
• Cabins and seasonal properties
• Rooms that are always cold on a forced-air system
• Replacing failed heaters in electrically heated homes

They also make sense when a forced-air system is being replaced and some rooms are hard to duct, such as a finished attic or a converted garage. Baseboards fill those gaps without new ductwork.

Sizing and placement

Heat output is chosen room by room, based on size, windows, exterior walls and insulation. A basement bedroom with a big window loses much more heat on a -30 C night than an interior room. Undersized heaters run constantly and still leave you cold; oversized ones cycle and waste money on equipment.

Heaters work best under windows and along exterior walls, where they counter cold downdrafts. Thermostats go on inside walls, away from drafts, sunlight and the heater itself, so they read the actual room temperature.

We also check the existing heaters in older electrically heated homes. Heaters from decades ago may have worn thermostats, loose connections or damaged elements, and replacing a few problem units is often more effective than adding more.

Thermostats that save energy

Old dial thermostats often swing several degrees, so rooms feel too hot then too cold. Modern electronic line-voltage thermostats hold temperature much more precisely. Programmable and smart models lower the temperature at night or while you are away, which can noticeably cut heating costs.

We can replace thermostats on their own, without touching the heaters, as long as the new thermostat is rated for the heater load on that circuit.

Smart thermostats for baseboards must be designed for line voltage. Many popular smart thermostats are low-voltage only and will not work, or will be damaged, if connected directly to a heater circuit.

Circuits and capacity

Baseboards run on 240 V circuits, and a whole floor of them adds up to a large load. Before a basement is converted, we do a load calculation to make sure the service can carry it with everything else in the house. Circuits are sized for the total heater load, and each heater gets a proper connection, not a shared tap through a damaged junction.

What drives cost

We do not post prices. Cost depends on the number of heaters and thermostats, whether walls are open (new construction or a renovation) or finished, the distance to the panel, available panel space and capacity, and the thermostat type. Replacing a heater on an existing circuit is a much smaller job than adding heat to a whole basement.

If you are developing a basement, plan the heat with the rest of the electrical layout. Our basement renovation service covers lighting, receptacles, smoke alarms and heat together under one permit.

Questions we hear