Why heating matters

Heating is the biggest driver of energy bills in the winter. Even if electricity isn’t your main heat source, it often plays a bigger role than people realize—especially in extreme cold temperatures and overnight.

Wood Heat: Why your power bill may still go up

Many people who heat their homes with wood expect their electricity bill to be much lower. In reality, electricity is often doing important work in the background, which is why power bills increase during winter even if you heat with wood.

Here’s why:

• Electric heat may still be running in parts of the home where the wood heat doesn’t reach like bathrooms, bedrooms, basements, spare rooms. A wood stove usually heats one area well—but can’t evenly heat every room.
• When the wood fire burns down—especially overnight—baseboards can turn on automatically unless the thermostat is set at zero or turned off at the breaker.
• Thermostats don’t always work the way we expect, for example older dial thermostats can be inaccurate—turned down does not necessarily mean it is turned off.
• To fully shut off electric baseboards, they need to be turned off at the breaker.
• Furnace fans and controls use electricity.

Wood heat can reduce electricity use—but may not eliminate electric heating entirely.

Heat Pumps

Heat pumps are one of the most efficient ways to heat a home—but they still use electricity, and performance changes in cold weather.

What many people don’t realize:

• Heat pumps use more power when the temperature drops.
• Most homes with heat pumps still have electric heat such as baseboards to provide additional heat when it’s cold.
• Running a heat pump all winter long still adds up over a long, cold winter.
• Maintaining your heat pump is critical. Regular filter cleaning helps it run more efficiently and can reduce your energy use

Heat pumps usually lower heating costs compared to baseboard heat—but winter electricity use can still be significant, especially on the coldest days.

Estimated Monthly Electricity Ranges for Heat Pumps Systems

These figures are meant to give an estimation—each home is unique. The best way to see what’s happening in your homes is to track your daily usage. If your usage seems completely out of range, you might want to consider programs at SaveEnergyNB.

Why bills can be higher than expected

A higher-than-expected bill can be a result of a combination of factors:

• Colder than average temperatures
• Longer billing periods
• More time spent at home
• A hot water leak or dripping faucet
• Back up electric heat/baseboards
• Rate changes

No single factor tells the whole story.

Take Control: What you can do:

• Check if heaters are running in spare rooms, basements and areas that are rarely used
• Lower baseboard thermostats, especially in areas with wood heat or heat pumps
• Use the Home Energy Estimator to see how different heating systems affect usage
• Track daily usage in your NB Power online account to identify patterns that can help you make changes that can help you save.

Understanding how your heating system uses electricity is the first step toward managing winter bills.

Put your knowledge to the test with our Interactive Quiz!