Cold Weather Homes: Considerations for Home Building in Cold Climates
Designing Your Home for a Cold Climate
Before discussing the right style and building materials for cold weather homes, you might start the planning process by envisioning your life in the home you want to build. How will you or your family use the interior and exterior space? Which areas of the home will you inhabit during different times of day? Where will you most savor the sunlight?
Optimal Home Orientation & Landscaping
Designing a home in a cold climate isn’t simply about protecting a home from exterior conditions, but also about maximizing the home’s relationship with the natural world. For example, you might orient your home to capture natural warmth via sunlight through the windows in the morning. Consider also when and where trees or other structures will block the sun from entering your home. How will the landscaping change with the seasons, and where will you desire shade in the warmer months?
Creative Heat Retention via Separate Entry
The best insulation won’t keep the cold from entering your home when the door is open. If you live in a cold climate, you know the feeling when you’ve managed to heat your home to the perfect temperature, then someone brings home groceries, leaving the door open for a couple minutes and ushering in the cold. That’s where a mudroom shines. Never underestimate the heat-saving influence of a separate entry space that prevents cold drafts from spoiling cozy living rooms. A separate entry can be a life-saver if you expect a lot of movement between the indoors and outdoors due to an active lifestyle or kids who play outside.
Must Have: A Building Envelope that Prevents Heat Leakage
Having a tight building envelope is important for maintaining comfortable indoor temperatures in extreme climates, and it’s essential to the energy-efficiency of a home. A well-sealed envelope means the home doesn’t have weaknesses in the barrier between the indoors and outdoors that would invite drafts or leakages. A building’s envelope is determined by core features like the insulation style in the ceiling and walls, as well as the type of windows used throughout the home.
Continuous Insulation & Thermal Conductivity
You probably know that the higher quality insulation you have, the tighter your building envelope and the less heat will leak from your home. But did you know that heat often leaks from a building through conductive sections like door frames, window frames, and wall studs? Through a process called thermal bridging, a home’s heat naturally gravitates toward cold through the most conductive materials in the envelope.
Take for example homes that use fiberglass insulation only in the cavities between wooden studs, where significant energy is lost in those gaps at the studs. This sort of problem can be remedied by incorporating continuous insulation across the studs or by implementing an alternative method of insulation that provides an airtight envelope. When it comes to windows and doors, consider the thermal conductivity of the frames.
The Best Windows for Cold Climates
If you’re choosing quality insulation for your walls but skimping on the windows, you might as well just make donations to your local utility company. In addition to continuous insulation through your walls, opt for a window system with multiple panes. This space between the window glass creates a vacuum to minimize heat loss. It’s typical for these windows to include gas between the panes for added insulation.
Roof Styles for Snowy Climates
Minimizing Snow and Ice Accumulation
While desert-dwellers can get away with all sorts of roof styles, those living in cold climates have learned to consider snow when it comes to making plans. Choosing a roof style that minimizes snow and ice accumulation is one of the most essential aspects of designing a cold weather home—and a detail that most cities will have a say about when it comes to permitting.
Snow Load Requirements: In order to get a building permit in snowy climates, your home will need to meet certain specifications based on the city’s typical snow load, which is the force of accumulated snow and ice on the roof.
Roof Pitch and Material: You should consider both roof material and and roof pitch if you plan to build a home in a snowy climate. Roofs with more texture will hold onto more snow, and the flatter the roof, the more easily ice and snow can accumulate. Even a minor roof pitch will assist in shedding snow, but in the most extreme climates, a steeper roof pitch will often be required for building permit approval.
Roof Insulation: Adequate insulation in the roof is essential to keep heat from leaking out and melting snow, thus creating ice. If you encounter several freezing days in a row without the proper insulation, melted snow will continue to re-freeze into a dangerous accumulation of ice, spelling potential roof damage.
Roof Features: Stylish roof features like dormers and chimneys might seem like a charming touch, but when it comes to cold conditions, they present an opportunity for snow drift to become trapped. You might opt for alternative ways to add dimension to your home that do not present potential liabilities down the road.
Closing Thoughts
There is much to consider when planning to build a home in a cold climate, and you have plenty of options depending on your specific microclimate, your budget, and your preferences. If you’re already living in the area where you want to build, talk to the locals! The endeavor to build a new home in the area is a great opportunity to meet the community and get the scoop on what’s working for your neighbors. How do they thrive during the harshest winters, and what might they change if they were starting fresh with a brand new home?