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michaelparsche
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# Posted: 7 Oct 2019 09:06am
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We have a cottage that we would like to use in the winter. We are enclosing the sub-basement and heating it with a baseboard heater.
We have a wood stove to keep the cottage warm when we are there. But we also want to keep the main part of the cottage warm enough to prevent the plumbing from freezing when we are not there.
What I am trying to determine is how many baseboard heaters will be required. I know that there is a rule of thumb that you need 10W of heat per square foot, but that is to heat the whole cottage. We just want to keep just above freezing.
The cottage space the we want to heat is about 600 square feet and we want to keep it around 5 degrees celcius.
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qbodsyt
Member
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# Posted: 7 Oct 2019 10:35am
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I think there are a lot of factors to consider before anyone could give you a precise answer... You say you are enclosing the sub basement, a space of about 600 square feet, great, but what sort of plumbing does your cottage have? Are you well fed? Do you pull your water from a lake? Do you have a holding tank for the water in this sub basement? What kind of insulation have you used when enclosing the sub basement? What climate zone do you live in?
I live in Quebec, we see temperatures as low as -40 celsius, the insulation I would need and the wattage of heating I would require would be much greater than someone in Tennessee might need. I assume from your usage of Celsius you're a Canuck like me so probably you're going to require similar levels of insulation to myself, but until we have that data it would be hard to recommend with any certainty a specific wattage you would require.
Additionally, if you live in Ontario, power outages in rural northern Ontario occur with some frequency, I know this as our family has owned a cottage in Muskoka for over 50 years and the power is not reliable....do you have a backup plan for power for your baseboard heater?
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Sprinkler Guy
Member
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# Posted: 7 Oct 2019 07:47pm
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Why not drain it when you leave?
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ICC
Member
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# Posted: 7 Oct 2019 09:09pm
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Yep. Draining the pipes and/or blowing them out with compressed air, plus RV antifreeze in the traps including the toilet means no heat is needed. Preferable to me, as I have a real aversion to spending money on heating or cooling when no humans or animals are in residence.
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Just
Member
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# Posted: 7 Oct 2019 09:28pm
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I had a 600 sq. Ft. Cottage in central Ont
We tried it 700$ THE FIRST 3 M0NTHS we went back to draining . Also it's a constant worry that the hydro may go out.
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ICC
Member
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# Posted: 7 Oct 2019 09:34pm
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Glad to see that input Just.... I always figured it would cost a lot to keep the heat on even just a little in a really cold environment. Never knew anyone who tried it.
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old243
Member
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# Posted: 7 Oct 2019 10:47pm
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I have baseboard heaters in every room in my house. They are turned way down, just as an emergency backup, in case my gas furnace fails. I do use sometimes in my mancave. We were renovating and being an electrician, with a bunch of used heaters, I wired my house. The way I looked at it you really don't have to use them , but they have come in handy on one occasion.
Depending how well your basement is insulated you could probably keep the pipes from freezing. I would think you would have to keep some heat upstairs as well. As far as cost , not sure if it would make sense.old243 .
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gauman2
Member
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# Posted: 10 Oct 2019 12:40pm
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I believe a propane type heating unit would cost less to operate.
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