Harrowsmith – September 2019

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that’s destined for trouble. Batts

don’t add much warmth to floors,

and they provide excellent

conditions for rodent infestations.

It is far better to use spray foam

insulation on the underside

of floors because it both seals

and insulates. But even with

spray foam in place, floors won’t

actually get warm to the touch.

For that, you’ll need some kind of

in-floor heating. Electric in-floor

systems are easiest to install and

don’t consume much power if

used only to warm the floors.

Are your cold floors over a

basement? You can follow the

same procedure as when working

over a crawl space, or you can

insulate basement walls and

heat the basement like any other

living space. Just be sure that the

basement is 100 percent dry,

100 percent of the time. Old

homes are more likely to have

basements that leak. Insulating

the walls of a wet basement will

almost inevitably lead to mould

growth and poor indoor air

quality throughout your home.

HOME & DESIGN: OLD-HOUSE ENERGY UPGRADES

The cost of heat energy varies
wildly depending on what
form you buy and how it’s used.
The cost of a million BTUs
of electricity used to power a
baseboard heater in Ontario, for
instance, is many times the cost
of the same amount of energy in

the form of natural gas burned

in a high-efficiency furnace.

In regions where natural gas

isn’t available, propane is about

30 percent cheaper than the

same amount of electricity used

directly for heating. But propane

is still twice as expensive as

Strategy No. 4: Optimize energy choices