Sustainable Buildings Canada is a huge fan of electrification as key to our collective futures. That said, rather than start with silver-bullet solutions, we always engage in the building decarbonization discussion through the Integrated Design Process (IDP), a holistic approach that engages top building science experts such as Cara Sloat, of Hammerschlag & Joffe Inc., and Jack Zhou of A & J Energy Consultants Inc..
Sloat agrees that electrification is the most important single step to take in low-carbon electricity grids. Work done by SBC, The City of Toronto, and the Toronto 2030 District all clearly show this finding – only adding ERVs reliably improves the payback of Toronto heat pumps; you can replace windows and walls without penalizing the heat pump business case, but it isn’t required. With that said, having a professional briefly review the envelope and HVAC distribution is worthwhile – for a building with old single-glazed windows, a poorly insulated attic, or extreme heat loss due to air infiltration, a heat pump retrofit alone could be oversized after the windows are replaced or heat loss rectified, which can cause comfort issues in the summer and poor winter efficiency.
While we certainly agree with author Michael Barnard that electrification is an integral component of decarbonizing the building sector, it would be a folly to disregard the fact that many buildings have relatively new gas infrastructure/equipment that would need to be discarded and replaced with electrical equivalents. Preparing these buildings for electrification by improving insulation and air sealing is an apparent effort toward incremental technological change, while including consideration of the lifespan of existing equipment.
Zhou reflects that in today’s economy, dual-fuel systems are often more affordable and practical, especially when electrical capacity is limited. They offer meaningful carbon reductions while also providing resilience—gas fireplaces, in particular, can act as a reliable backup heat source during grid outages, which is a real concern for many homeowners as we have seen over the past week in many parts of Ontario.
Sloat and Zhou agree that it’s also critical for these kinds of rules of thumb to be validated for different climate zones and electricity grids. In Alberta, where grid emissions are high, a heat pump retrofit may not reduce emissions; a solar panel retrofit might have better carbon emission reduction potential. But from a performance and payback perspective, heat pumps continue to stand out as the fastest, most scalable path toward building decarbonization.
Building owners can use IDP to determine the best approach to achieving their energy or emissions targets. Improving one element in isolation rarely improves the total energy consumption. Governments can provide specific energy or emissions targets expressed as Energy Use Intensity (EUI) or Greenhouse Gas Intensity (GHGI) but, translating these into a building code often means specifying product standards and minimum insulation values. As we all work to integrate climate concerns into practice, there will inevitably be some programs or practices that are imperfect. This should not lead us to throw the baby out with the bathwater (ie. a new-ish high-efficiency boiler) nor stop us from pursuing the goal of better buildings that are in best possible condition of energy efficiency and electric or electric-ready.
This response was written in reference to the article, “The Fabric-First Trap: Decades of Studies Show Electrification Wins Every Time,” published on CleanTechnica on March 27, 2025.
