Heat loss in Canadian homes
Conduction, air leakage, and where a typical detached house tends to lose warmth first — from the attic plane to rim joists and window frames.
Read the note →Home energy · Canada
Keeping a home warm without wasting the heat it makes.
How insulation, air sealing, and heating equipment work together to reduce energy use in cold-climate Canadian homes. Written as plain notes on materials, common heat-loss points, and the work that fits each season.
Three core notes
Where the heat goes, what holds it back, and when to act.
Insulation materials compared
Batt, mineral wool, blown cellulose, and spray foam side by side — what each does well, where it tends to fit, and how RSI and R-value relate.
Read the note →
Seasonal heating preparation
A fall walk-through for cold climates: sealing, thermostat setup, filter and equipment checks, and how cold-climate heat pumps behave in winter.
Read the note →Core principles
Efficiency comes from sequence, not a single upgrade.
Seal before you add
Air sealing usually comes before extra insulation. Insulation slows conduction, but it does little against air that moves freely through gaps, so closing leaks first lets the insulation perform as intended.
Treat the building as a system
Insulation, ventilation, and heating interact. Tightening a house changes how moisture and fresh air move, which is why mechanical ventilation is considered alongside air sealing in cold climates.
Prioritise the largest surfaces
The attic plane and exterior walls are large, continuous areas, so improvements there generally affect more heat flow than isolated fixes elsewhere in the house.
Match equipment to climate
Heating equipment is chosen for the local climate. In much of Canada that means sizing for sustained cold and confirming how a system behaves at low outdoor temperatures.
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Start with the note on heat loss.
It explains the vocabulary — conduction, air leakage, RSI — used across the rest of the notes.