Three forced air furnaces in the truck bay at the Sundre fire hall have been replaced with radiant heaters.
The cost of this replacement totals $8,080 – half of which is paid for by the town fire reserves and the other half by Mountain View County.
The town's $4,040 share was approved by town council at its regular meeting on Dec. 3.
This year's recent annual inspection by Comfortec resulted in this replacement.
“Upon this inspection they found cracks in the heater block so that means that there is potential for CO2 leaks so that's pretty hazardous with people in the building,” said Wanda Watson-Neufeld, director of corporate services.
Marty Butts, the town's fire chief, asked the town on Oct. 31 to replace the forced air furnaces with radiant heaters.
He said there were concerns with the forced air furnaces, including heat escaping when the overhead doors were open in the winter. This caused the three furnaces to run longer than necessary in order to reheat the building.
Butts said forced air heating warms the air, allowing it to then heat objects. However, he said radiant heat is directly absorbed by an object, which then heats the air.
“Radiant heat is a faster, more cost-effective heating system for the long term and will outlive forced air heating,” said Butts.
