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Baseboard heater not working
The thermostat, the breaker, the heater itself: what you can check without opening any cover, what takes an electrician, and when it’s urgent.
In short
This guide covers an electric baseboard heater that stopped heating, heats nonstop or makes noise: what you can safely check yourself, and what takes an electrician.
- First look at how far the cold goes: one heater, one room or several rooms at once.
- The thermostat setting and the breaker can be checked without opening any cover.
- A heater that smells burnt or has a damaged casing: switch off its breaker and call.
- When a single heater or a single room stays cold, the problem often comes from the thermostat or a connection.
- In Québec, repairing a baseboard heater, a thermostat or a connection is an electrician’s job.
- Replacing baseboard heaters and thermostats is one of the jobs STM-Électrique does most often.
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One heater, one room or the whole house: first sort it out
Before touching anything, look at how far the cold goes. The answer already tells you where to look.
Only one room is cold. The cause is in that room: its heater, its thermostat or a connection. The problem often comes from the thermostat or a connection.
Several rooms are cold, and the stove, the dryer or the water heater are acting up too. The problem is upstream of your heaters. Those appliances run on 240 volts, like baseboard heaters, and the house gets its 240 volts through two 120-volt conductors. When one of the two is missing, everything that needs both stops or heats poorly.
In that case, don’t wait: the failing connection can heat up. Switch off the main breaker if you can do it without risk, move away and call us at 438 542-7304. Our guide Partial power outage in the house: what to do explains what comes next.
The whole house has no power. It’s no longer a heater problem, it’s an outage: our page 24/7 emergency electrician helps you tell your installation apart from the grid.
The thermostat: what you can check
In most Québec homes, heating comes from baseboard heaters and their thermostats: the thermostat is what turns the heater on and off.
Turn the setting above the room temperature, then see whether the heater starts heating again.
A baseboard thermostat runs on the same power as the heater, most often 240 volts, sometimes 120 or 208 volts. If its screen is blank, it may no longer be getting power: check the breaker, in the next section.
A smart thermostat can also be set from its app, Neviweb for Sinopé models. Make sure the setpoint shown in the app is the one you want.
Every thermostat has a maximum load, set by the manufacturer. At Sinopé, it’s 3,000 W at 240 volts for the TH1123WF and 4,000 W for the TH1124WF, resistive loads only.
To see where a thermostat stands, you add up the wattage of the heaters connected to it. The sheet for the Sinopé TH1123WF and TH1124WF thermostats gives a rule for a 240-volt installation: 250 W per foot of heater, so 1,500 W for a 6-foot heater.
Don’t take the thermostat apart to look behind it: the wires there are live. According to the same Sinopé sheet, these thermostats must be installed by a certified electrician and comply with the electrical codes in force.
The heater’s breaker
Heating has its own circuits at the panel. According to a technical interpretation by the Régie du bâtiment du Québec, based on the 2010 edition of the Code, a branch circuit that supplied a fixed heating appliance could not supply other appliances; later editions were not reviewed for this guide.
That circuit most often runs on 240 volts.
At the panel, find the heating breaker for the cold room. If it has tripped, reset it: push the handle fully to OFF, then bring it back to ON.
If it trips again as soon as the heater starts heating, don’t keep resetting it: resetting doesn’t remove the cause. Call an electrician.
A breaker that feels hot or smells burnt is not reset at all: call.
The causes of a tripping breaker are in our guide Breaker keeps tripping: causes and what to do.
It heats nonstop
A heater that heats nonstop, even with the thermostat turned all the way down, no longer follows its setting. The thermostat is the first thing to check, but not the only one: a connection can also be at fault.
Check the simplest thing first. Furniture or a curtain in front of the heater holds its heat back: the room warms up poorly, and the thermostat keeps it heating longer for nothing.
For its BA series heater, the manufacturer Stelpro asks for at least 15 cm (6 in.) of clear space between the top of the heater and objects: furniture, pillows, curtains, blankets, towels, clothes, papers. A blocked heater overheats, which can cause a fire.
Québec’s Ministère de la Sécurité publique (Ministry of Public Security) gives the same minimum distance of 15 centimetres between wall heating and curtains, drapes or furniture.
With an old dial thermostat, the room swings around the temperature you want. An electronic thermostat keeps it closer to the setting.
If nothing is blocking the heater and it still heats at the lowest setting, switch off its breaker. According to Stelpro’s guide for its BA series, a damaged or faulty appliance is switched off at the breaker and sent for repair.
A baseboard heater that stopped heating?
We check the heater, its thermostat and the circuit that supplies them. The price is written in the quote, at no charge, before the work.
Send my quote requestIt crackles, buzzes or gives off a smell
A slight crackling when it starts up is often normal: it’s the metal expanding.
With the first cold days, a heater that hasn’t run for months can also give off a smell and a thin whitish smoke. According to Stelpro’s guide for its BA series, that is normal and temporary, at initial start-up or after a long period off.
Dust built up in the fins has a lot to do with it: it lowers the heater’s efficiency and causes the burning smell you notice with the first cold.
For maintenance, Stelpro’s guide for its BA series says to switch off the power at the breaker before any cleaning. In a dusty spot, the dust comes off with the dusting brush of a vacuum cleaner.
A continuous buzzing, or a smell of burnt dust that lasts after a few hours of heating, is not normal, especially on an older unit.
Neither is sizzling or a burning smell that doesn’t go away: switch off the heater’s breaker and call an electrician right away.
What is the electrician’s job
Turning up the thermostat, resetting a breaker, clearing a heater and dusting it once the breaker is off: no rule forbids a homeowner from doing these things.
Opening the casing, taking the thermostat apart, redoing a connection or adding a heater: no. The Régie du bâtiment du Québec is clear: a person may not carry out work on an electrical installation, even in their own home, without the appropriate licence.
The Québec government says the same: to repair your electrical installation, and for any work involving electricity, always call a master electrician.
While you wait for the repair, a space heater can help. Québec.ca says to plug it directly into an outlet, without an extension cord, and to keep at least 1 metre clear around it.
A space heater is not for continuous use: permanent, compliant heating is installed by a qualified person. Also choose a unit that shuts itself off if it tips over.
When it’s urgent
A heater that smells burnt, sizzles or has a damaged casing: switch off its breaker and don’t turn it back on.
A thermostat that is hot to the touch or blackened: same thing, its breaker goes off, and you call.
If the smell comes from the panel, or if several rooms lost their heat at once: switch off the main breaker if you can do it without risk, move away and call us at 438 542-7304, 24 hours a day.
Smoke or flames: get out, go to your meeting point and dial 911. Never go back inside, even to get your belongings.
The other signs of an electrical fire hazard are in our guide Signs of an electrical fire hazard at home.
Repair or replace: a master electrician’s job
A heater that smells burnt, no longer heats along its whole length or has a damaged casing gets replaced.
Before changing the heater, we check the circuit that supplies it: the breaker, the wires and their connections, often more worn than the heater itself.
We check the wires in every box, and we tell you if the house has aluminum wiring.
It’s also the right time to replace dial thermostats. We install Sinopé models and Hilo-compatible thermostats.
A new baseboard heater means a new circuit or one more load on an existing circuit. According to the same RBQ interpretation, with a breaker approved for 80% continuous duty, the minimum protection had to be at least 125% of the load’s rated current (2010 edition; later editions were not reviewed for this guide). That calculation is done by the electrician, circuit by circuit.
For a first idea of the heater wattage each room needs, our baseboard heater calculator does the math.
The price depends on the number of rooms, the model chosen and the condition of the boxes and wires. It is written in the quote, at no charge, before the work.
Everything we do on electric heating is on our page Baseboard heaters and thermostats.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my electric baseboard heater not heating?
Often because of the thermostat or a connection, sometimes because its breaker has tripped. First check the thermostat setting, then the breaker at the panel. If several rooms are cold at the same time, the problem more likely comes from the house’s power supply.
Why does my baseboard heater heat nonstop?
First check that nothing is blocking it: for its BA series, Stelpro asks for 15 cm of clear space above it. If it still heats with the thermostat at its lowest, switch off its breaker: the thermostat, a connection or the heater must be checked by an electrician.
Is it normal for a baseboard heater to make noise?
A slight crackling at start-up, yes: the metal expands. A smell and a thin whitish smoke the first time it runs in winter too, according to Stelpro’s guide for its BA series. Sizzling or a burning smell that lasts, no: switch off its breaker and call.
How do I test a baseboard heater?
Without opening the casing: set the thermostat above the room temperature and look at the breaker. What is under the casing is checked by an electrician: the heater, the thermostat and the circuit that supplies them, with the breaker, the wires and their connections.
A baseboard heater that stopped heating?
We check the heater, its thermostat and the circuit that supplies them. The price is written in the quote, at no charge, before the work.
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Sources
Consulted on November 5, 2026.
- Stelpro, user guide for the BA series baseboard heater (in French)
- Sinopé, smart thermostat for electric baseboard heaters (in French)
- Régie du bâtiment du Québec, branch circuits for fixed heating equipment (in French)
- Government of Québec, electricity (preventing a fire) (in French)
- Government of Québec, electric heating (in French)
- Ministère de la Sécurité publique (Québec’s Ministry of Public Security), 10 electrifying tips (in French)
- Government of Québec, fire at home (in French)