OTTAWA — How Canadians keep their homes warm in winter depends on which part of the country they are in. Data from StatCan’s 2013 Households and the Environment Survey reveal that homes in Ontario and the West mostly opt for forced air furnaces burning natural gas. In Quebec and in the East, electric powered baseboard heaters and furnaces using heating oil are in an overwhelming majority of households.
Forced air furnaces were the most common type of heating system, used by 53% of Canadians, followed by electric baseboard heaters, used by 28%. Those figures were unchanged from 2011. Forced air furnaces were the dominant type of heating system in Ontario (73%) and the Prairie Provinces (between 73% and 83%). However, 64% of households in Quebec, 59% in Newfoundland and Labrador, and 52% in New Brunswick were all more likely to have reported electric baseboard heaters. Forced air furnaces and boiler systems each were used by about one-third of households in Prince Edward Island.
