Electrically Heated Home Definition

Efficiency Nova Scotia considers a home to be “electrically heated” when the home’s heating system(s) is set up to provide all, or the majority, of the home’s heating from electricity. The following provides Efficiency Nova Scotia’s view of various heating system configurations:

Electrically HeatedNon-Electrically Heated
100% electric heat
(no non-electric space heating systems in the home).This include homes that only have electric baseboards, electric furnace, electric boiler, central heat pump with electric backup or any of these electric systems along with solar, ETS, and/or ductless mini-splits.
100% non-electric heat
(no electric space heating systems in the home).This includes homes with only a non-electric heating system (e.g. central furnace or boiler that supplies heat to the home using oil, natural gas, propane, wood or pellets).
Home is set up to primarily use electric heating (any of the systems above), but also has one or more non-electric space heaters.
A non-electric space heater could be considered a wood / pellet stove, oil stove or space heater, gas fireplace or space heater, coal stove.
Home is set up to primarily use non-electric heating (any of the central systems above), but also has one or more electric space heaters.
An electric space heater could be considered electric baseboards (e.g. in an addition on the home), electric in floor heating (e.g. in the bathroom) or other electric resistance heating that is not supplied to the majority of the home.
Home has a central heat pump – regardless of back up.Home has any type of central non-electric heating and ductless mini-split(s).