What you need to know about heating your home ahead of extreme cold

With an extreme cold moving into Nova Scotia this weekend, experts are reminding people to take precautions when heating their home.

Peter Lively, a plumber in Halifax, said most homeowners shouldn't worry too much about their pipes freezing as the cold snap isn't expected to last more than a day.

He said older homes that don't have basements are more at risk, but as long as the home is kept warm and heat is circulated through all levels, there shouldn't be any problems.

"On older homes that have — typically in the past — their water pipes freezing for their kitchen sink ... leave the cupboard doors or the cabinets under the sink open so that the heat from the house can keep that warm underneath there," Lively told CBC Radio's Mainstreet Cape Breton.

Bobby Haines, a 10-year firefighter with the Kentville Volunteer Fire Department, said when keeping your house warm, homeowners must be careful when using backup heat sources.

He spoke with CBC Radio's Erin MacInnis on Friday, ahead of the extreme temperature drop.

Their interview has been edited for length and clarity.

LISTEN | Hear part of the interview with Haines:

What heating and safety tips do you have ahead of this cold snap?

In circumstances like this, we often see people use what we would refer to as backup heat sources. Unfortunately, a lot of those are poorly maintained and it can lead to higher risks of structure fires, chimney fires, things of that nature. We've not seen temperatures like this — I can't recall ever seeing something this cold —  but yeah, it's certainly a risk.

For people with hydronic heating systems, such as hot water baseboards, it's a really good idea for them to get that system up and running as it can prevent some freezing of pipes. Older homes, of course, are not nearly insulated quite as well as today's homes, and what we find with that is they become drafty and if we're not using the system the way it was meant to be used when it was installed many, many years ago, sometimes we can see those freeze and it's always a bit of a nightmare to have some some water in your home, especially in winter.

We want the hydronic water systems on. If they're not on, the water's not circulating. Water that circulates, of course, it's a lot harder to freeze

What about heat pumps?

What most people don't realize about heat pumps is that there is an electric heating strip in there and that's a type of an auxiliary heat, aside from the main heat-pump mechanism and they will work. It's similar to an electric heater, and if those are turned on your hot-water system, your hot-water baseboard heaters won't have to work as hard, and they may not heat up enough to take the cold that we're going to see.

So people should leave the heat pump off and just rely on baseboard heaters?

It really comes down to how new your system is. If you've got a newer system, they're more efficient. They do work well in colder climates, but if you have an older system I would certainly go to the hydronic system without a question.

I've been seeing a number of heat pump installers and contractors online, they seem to contradict each other. Some people say to keep it on, some people say to turn it off, so I guess my best advice would be if you don't know, call the contractor that put it in and get some information from the professionals.

What are some considerations around space heaters if people are going to be resorting to those this weekend?

Well, anytime you're going to use a space heater, you're going to want to make sure that the area directly in front and behind and off to the sides are clear of any debris. Try to put them in an area where they're less likely to be disturbed or tipped over. Some of the newer space heaters have tip-over protection so they'll turn off, but the older ones don't. 

It's always a risk when you start to use that and you have to keep in mind your electrical system that you have in your home as well, isn't enough to support that type of heating, so there are certainly a number of homes out there today that still have less than 100-amp heating service and the old fuse style, so don't over fuse your panel in order to use those. That's a big thing that I would stress.

But we all know that it's going to be cold and and unfortunately, people are going to be forced to do things they normally wouldn't do.

I'm wondering about that fire risk that you tend to see with colder weather like this. What tends to cause that? Is it people using candles?

Not necessarily candles from a cold snap. We would see that more or less in power outages but the the risk of fire is actually what you mentioned, the space heaters and a lot of people are now using heat pumps, so their secondary heat source, such as wood stoves and wood furnaces and so on, aren't used nearly as much as they once were and … when you're not using it, it's not top of mind to have things like your chimney cleaned on a regular basis and a lot of people are probably going to turn that on without giving it much thought, and I think that's where they could potentially come into some problems.

We see a lot of stuff in the fire service, so if we can stop at least one person from accidentally lighting something on fire, it's always a good day.