Hi all, we have been looking for a house for a long time now and yesterday, saw a 2,000 sq feet bungalow that we loved. However, its a 1962 panadobe home in Calgary, Alberta and it gets extremely cold here in winter and the temperature cab go from -30C to +15 within 24-30 hrs sometimes. The home is in 2 "wings" - bedroom wing and living wing. Under living area, there is a finished basement but under the bedrooms there is very shallow NOT insulated crawl space. Also, the wood is 4' thick or less. There are also 2 types of roofing on the house - shingles in some places and Tar & Gravel in others. There is a double-sided wood burning fireplace in the living area and older gas fireplace in master bedroom. So, my question is - am i crazy considering this house? Will my heating bills be enormous to keep it at comfortable for us 23C in winter when its -33C outside? Its way above budget already and needs all the cosmetics work and appliances done, so if i need to completely insulate the entire house (walls and roof), what do you think that would cost? thank you all, hoping there are people here from Alberta who live in same type homes and can share their experience

If the wood is 4' thick performance would be pretty good, but I suspect you really meant 4".

At 4" solid cedar you're looking at about twice the heat loss per unit area of a 2x4/R12 type of wall, more than 3x the heat loss of a 2x6/R19 + R5 insulated sheathing type wall. But it's only about 2/3 the heat loss of a 2x4 framed house with NO wall insulation.

Air leakage is also notoriously difficult to control in this type of house.

Unless there have already been some modifications to improve R-value and air tightness it's probably time to look elsewhere (as cute as the house might be.) It's hard to just guess how much improvement has been done (if any) on the building envelope performance with the limited description given.

Dana1 is an envelope man, but insulation is not the only way to get there. I built a house that lacks the Dana1 seal of approval. (Walls roughly equal to 2x4 r-11.) The utility bill in my all electric home averages about $50/month and the rest of my energy (firewood) is 100 percent renewable. It helps to live in a forest, as I do, but there is also solar and geothermal. And for the moment anyway, natural gas is a bargain in Alberta. Ask to see gas and/or electric bills.

Walls are actually third on the usual suspects list in a Pan Abode type house. The attic typically would have the highest heat loss, with windows coming in at number 2. Excessive drafts would move the walls up a place or two but Pan Abode's approach is a tongue and groove log wall. I am thinking that they would not be selling kits in Canada 70 years later if the wind whistled through them. Again, the best read on energy use is the seller's records.

Thank you for your responses. We have asked for the bills, but it appears this is an estate sale and the owner is no longer capable providing anything... Why are windows in those homes a source of lost heat? Is there a way to insulate this house?

Thank you for your responses. We have asked for the bills, but it appears this is an estate sale and the owner is no longer capable providing anything... Why are windows in those homes a source of lost heat? Is there a way to insulate this house?

Thank you for your responses. We have asked for the bills, but it appears this is an estate sale and the owner is no longer capable providing anything... Why are windows in those homes a source of lost heat? Is there a way to insulate this house?

Window heat loss is nothing unique to a Pan Abode except for 1962-era window standards, single-pane and leaky, if they are originals.

Second best to perusing the owner's energy bills is commissioning an energy audit. This program can surely point you to qualified auditors. http://www.aeea.ca/resources/energy-auditors. A quick and dirty look should suffice, and an auditor might even have experience with Pan Abode houses. A home inspection company can also give you the basics, although I'd do an audit down the road, after checking out the incentives in Calgary for energy conservation. https://www.efficiencyalberta.ca/residential-no-charge/ An audit would list remediations, their costs and potential savings. Attics and crawl spaces are relatively inexpensive. Windows are not. There is not much can be done about walls except furring out their interior -- a major undertaking.