I do some work in the Green Building sector (including some economy-level modelling of how much things like Net Zero and the 2030 Code would cost), so fairly familiar. For an older UK home, though, even the 2018 code is so far away from the existing stock as to be irrelevant. That said, for the UK, the Vancouver area comparison is fairly reasonable. For older buildings, the best yield on improvements is almost always improving air leakage, because most of them are a sieve. When you can feel a draft at a window, you are losing far more energy from heated air flowing out than radiant loss.
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but the problem is purely dependent on the building enclosure. the wall construction and where any openings are. the weather may be the same, but the buildings themselves are completely different
Vancouver homes are wood frame construction, almost exclusively. this is due to building code, to withstand an earthquake. homes in the UK are built mostly from brick/block wall because of the cost and insulating factors of protection from the winds.
Two totally different types of structure with their own problems. Even between Ottawa and Vancouver there are different codes and reasons for those. We are in a temperate rainforest, our homes are designed to breathe due moisture. so you saying you need a home that is “sealed” from air leakage, really is not 100% accurate.
At some point, you DO require to have a barrier to which the water is not allowed to penetrate inside the structure. But you CANNOT seal the wall from both sides, as this is how you develop wood rot in walls and is the cause for the “leaky condo” phonomenon of the 1990’s here. And thus, the development of the “Rainscreen” concept of building exteriors.
Tyvek wrapping of the entire home and the strapping/cladding/flashing of exterior siding is how they have tried to solve that problem. but both the inside and outside of that house wrap need to breathe to release moisture. otherwise, mold and rot.
You don’t a 100% seal, no. But if you are feeling a draft from a closed window, as was noted above, you have a problem.
yep. same same here
Should we have a “Canadian Building Regulations” thread? It might be a hit 
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The next best thing:
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nothing that a little bit of “carpenter in a can” won’t fix. and some good silicon
was just watching the Inter/Lazio game from the weekend to get some eyes on Thuram, and I saw that Lautaro Martinez was wearing a t-shirt post-match that said “Forza Bahia Blanca”
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nope. I don’t have a problem with hybrid vehicles. I believe that’s the way they should be pushing for years, am still pissed off that they don’t offer diesel variants in north america for many vehicles that they offer in the rest of the world. my Santa Fe is offered in a 2.4L diesel in the rest of the world, gets 40mpg. 35% better mileage than the gaspot.
really like the looks of the Volvo XC90 plug-in hybrid.
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I don’t actually get hybrid vehicles. What are they for? As a response to climate change or to make fuel a little cheaper? Because they do neither well.
a simple Google search will tell you lots about hybrid vehicles and their advantages. and their shortcomings.
I have always paid attention to fleet vehicles, especially taxi fleets. When the Prius hybrid came out, there was a huge influx of these vehicles in to the taxi service. they were well priced in comparison to standard vehicles, easy to maintain/repair, and inexpensive to operate.
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That article was very sparse on details on how their trip was made. But let’s see how much CO2 they “saved” by travelling over land assuming they travelled via a reasonable emissions car.
Flying: 17,016km x 148g/km x 3 = 7.55 tonnes
Driving: 26,000+ km (if avoiding all the warzones) x 155g/km = just over 4 tonnes (assumes fuel consumption is similar even when 3 people are on board)
Cutting your carbon emissions in (less than) half is good. Better than doing nothing. But I think the point is that travelling to the other side of the world is expensive in a carbon sense regardless of which means you choose to get there.
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But what environmental advantage is a Prius delivering? The electricity effectively is coming from a petrol generator. And Prius’s were never as fuel economic as a good diesel car, even with (or maybe because of) their electric tech.
PHEVs at least can be charged from the wall so the electricity isn’t simply a conversion from a fossil fuel like in a Prius hybrid, but they have, what, a 70 km range on battery and that’s assuming you are running them on that occasion with their fuel tank empty?
Hybrids of any sort are a bit of a scam in my mind. And unfortunately poor electric vehicles, as had been discussed in this thread, are not much better long term due to maintenance.
The massive advantage a Prius (or similar) has as a taxi is their efficiency in urban driving. Between the regenerative braking and the simple fact that the electrical drive has a much flatter efficiency curve than an internal combustion engine, they dramatically outperform an ICE vehicle in city driving.
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Sailing?
which in the urban environment where a large percentage of commuter vehicles are operated, is a big impact on a so-called carbon footprint. I have had a conversation with numerous taxis and couriers and their fuel usage in Prius were somewhere around 15L in a 12hr shift which is peanuts. most of our courier vehicles do double that number.
Surely the emissions used personally to fly to Australia would be divided by the number of passengers?
Or has that been factored into the calculation already?
I mean, the plane is going anyway, whereas the car isn’t
That is already in there - a 747 for example uses somewhere around 10 tonnes per hour of flight. That is an average, take off and ascent use a disproportionate amount.
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I am no longer driving so I not updated on latest technology but my friends who drive a hybrid says the biggest factor for them was taking away the fear of running out of juice when driving long distance on an pure electric car. Hybrid helps them make that transition in future to a pure electric car more comfortable and easier instead of jumping immediately.
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