The Best Secondary Heat Source Options for Legal Suites

One of the most important differentiators between legal and illegal suites is having a separate heat source for each of your suites. Each suite needs to have completely separate airflow from each other as well. Meaning that if a single furnace is pumping air both upstairs and downstairs, you will need cap some vents.

There are many different ways that you can provide heat and airflow to your suites. In this post we will look at some of the best options available and their pros and cons.

Forced Air Furnace

A forced air furnace is literally just adding a second furnace to your home that only feeds air to the basement suite. These furnaces have their own separate ductwork as well as ventilation to the outside. They can be either gas or electric (most being gas), and many of the new ones are high efficiency and take up less space. They would most likely be placed in the mechanical room of the house, and would feed fresh air through vents in the ceilings and walls of a basement suite.

Pros

One of the best reasons to get a furnace is that they are less expensive to operate. Gas is much less expensive than electricity is, and when you live in a city like Calgary that deals with the cold for half of the year (or sometimes more) you will be in need of heat quite often. The overall costs savings could be as much as 50% less in heating bills every year. Wow!

Furnaces also are able to heat up a suite faster than other heat sources. If you head out of town for a few days in the winter you can turn the heat down, and have your home warm up quickly when you get back home. 

Cons

There is a higher upfront cost to installing a gas furnace. In comparison to electric baseboards the cost of buying and installing a furnace is between 3-5 times as much (or between $2,000-$4,500 to buy and install)

If you are looking to suite a basement that is already finished then installing a furnace will be challenging. You will either need to get lucky and be able to close off the current air vents leading to the basement and connect them to your new furnace, or tear down the ceiling drywall to install new ductwork.

Overall

If you have the space in your mechanical room, and are looking to suite an unfinished basement then installing a furnace will usually be your best bet. Although there is a higher upfront cost to installing a furnace, the money saved on utilities in the long run is pretty huge. Even if you are not the one paying the bills, you will be able to keep good tenants longer through the good value.

If you are turning an illegal suite into a legal one and are not looking to to completely re-work the home, then I would recommend looking more closely at our next option.

Related: Five Things Your Home Needs to Have Before You Suite It

Electric baseboards/HRV

An electric baseboard heater sits right above the baseboards in one or more rooms of a suite and uses electricity to heat the rooms. Most of them are 100% energy efficient. They do not move air around however, and because of this they will also need a HRV (Heat Recovery Ventilation) system to allow for proper airflow in the home.

Pros

Buying and installing baseboard heaters is inexpensive. It costs between $300-$500 per heater to buy and have installed by an electrician. As an aside, it takes about 10 watts of power to heat of a square foot of a home. So If your basement suite is 800 square feet, then you would need at least 8,000 watts of power to heat your home.

If your suite is already close to finished, then this will be the simplest way to provide heat to your home. Installing an electric heater causes little disruption, and can be installed almost anywhere in the home. If you want simple then electric baseboard heaters are the way to go.

Cons

Electricity is super expensive! These baseboard heaters may be 100% efficient, but getting electricity to your home is not. Natural Resources Canada recently put out a 2016 report showing that it costs nearly twice as much to run electrical heaters every year than gas furnaces. So although you are saving in upfront costs, you or your tenants will ultimately pay in the long run.

You still need to install a HRV system in your home. Although still less costly, and potentially simpler than a furnace, this is still a costs that needs to be considered.

Overall

I would typically recommend avoiding baseboard heaters if you can. Although they are a cheap upfront cost, they end up costing more in the long run. It is easy to think they are simple to install, and forget that you still need to find a way to have proper airflow in the suite as well. Unless your suite is nearly complete I would look at other options.

Related: Calgary Secondary Suite Planning: Where Does the Electrical Panel Need To Be?

Radiant heating/HRV

This is a heat source option that is not talked about as often, but it is a really interesting one! Radiant heating or in-floor heating uses either heated water or electric coils that run underneath the floors to heat your home (and your feet!). 

Pros

Very little feels better than radiant heating. Instead of your bare feet freezing when they touch the cold tile or floor when you wake up they instead feel the comfy warmth of your secondary heat source.

The hydronic (water) radiant system on average costs 30% less than even a gas furnace on yearly heating bills. 

Cons

They are the most expensive to install. Ranging between $6-$15 per square foot. When my wife and I looked at adding radiant heating to our Ranchlands basement suite (1,100 square feet) it would have ended up costing us over $10,000 to install.

Like the furnace, it takes some significant work to add this heat source. You have to tear up all the current flooring to install it. and then add new flooring back down. And like electric baseboards you still need to install an HRV system in your home to pass your inspection and allow for proper airflow.

Overall

Radiant heating in the long term is one of the most energy and cost efficient options for your suite. It does however come with a large upfront cost for installation which can be a deterrent for many people.

The feeling of radiant heat is really quite something however, and I would at least look at installing it in a bathroom or bedroom if you want to have a feeling of luxury.

Which Option is Best?

All of these choices have their own pros and cons. And ultimately, the right decision will depend on the home that you are working with and your budget.

I have personally found that a forced air furnace has been the right choice in all of the houses that I have suited so far. In the long run it is cost efficient, and not too much more to have installed over baseboard heating.

If money is no object, or you are looking to make a luxury suite, then I would have radiant heating installed in at least some of, if not all, of the home. It really is a wonderful heat source.

I hope that you have found this article helpful in deciding what kind of heat source is best in your secondary suite. If you enjoyed this article and want to learn more about adding a legal suite to your home subscribe to our site! We have great weekly articles to help you learn about the process and see what others are doing.

Related: Legal Basement Suites: Calgary – The First 4 Steps

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