Winter’s arrival has home heating experts scrambling to meet demand

With the mercury dropping to the minus double digits this week in Alberta, heating systems in homes across the province are getting workout.

But home heating experts tell Global News, too many homeowners have been been caught unprepared for the cold weather.

Lucas Kirsch of 2020 Master Home Inspections, said making sure there is enough “insulation in the attic, and the attic hatch in particular,” is one of the most important things you can do to winterize your home.

“We want to make sure that there is a ton of insulation on top of that,” said Kirsch, “So we’re not finding air from the inside of the house, finding its way into a colder space in the attic, which will cause attic rain.”

Kirsch said attic rain happens when you’ve got hot air meeting with cold components, like nails, that are protruding through the sheathing in the attic, which will turn into frost balls.

“Then, when we get one of our famous Chinooks — it’s going to start raining (in your attic) and you can have nothing but problems,” he said.

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That can cause microbial growth, he added.

“You could have water coming through lights or any of the fixtures or speakers that you have in your ceiling, which is problematic and very expensive.”

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Landon Johnston, of Igloo HVAC, said yearly maintenance of your furnace is also important — but too many people wait until winter arrives and then, they have problems.

“It’s the same thing every year — temperature drops below zero degrees and that really puts as puts a stress tests on people’s furnaces,” said Johnston.

“We’re getting around 10 to 15 calls a day (from people with furnace problems) and we can probably only get to about half of those just with how bad the roads are right now.”

“Maintenance can be $90 or $150 but it could save you hundreds of dollars in the long run,” Johnston added.