Oh man that gives me flashbacks. Especially getting ready for winter coming up. Might have to go dust that off and play.

Yup, it is very often that the risk trade-off favours starting early. There’s a term alpine start for a reason. Whether it’s impending weather later in the day, or snow conditions will warm increasing avalanche risk, or the objective is just so long you want to make sure you’re back down on the easy bit. Had the latter last month. Did a traverse is seven summits and even with the 6am start it was dark by the time we got down from the ridge and back into the valley. Trail ran our way out by headlamps, singing dumb songs to not spook any grizzlies. Such a good outing!

I usually have a few bags on the go as well, variety is nice. Once there’s not enough left for a cup I’ll wait until another bag is in a similar state and combine. Sure it’s not as fresh and sometimes it’ll be a weird blend, but usually super good enough.

Sadly code minimums for newer builds haven’t really changed drastically in decades. It’s all just 2x6 with batt and poly, fundamentals the same as it has been since the 1970s. My 2019 build just had the shower lines freeze because they’re against an exterior wall (-30 cold snap, but still).

You’re probably right though that a heat pump is a better investment. Redoing the entire building envelope is a big ask if it’s not deteriorating and needing work anyway.

Fine, Israel’s leader/government, as elected by its population, is on record. Does that make it better?

1% of the population is a lot of people. That’s tens of thousands of lives cut short. Kids who’ll never grow up, families torn apart, etc. Should that not elicit emotion? There’s plenty of videos of children and unarmed people trying to surrender or otherwise being shot. Seems like anyone and everyone to me.

Fun fact! Hysteria was originally thought to be a condition that only applied to women, hence the Greek root “hyster” for womb, as if that were the source of irrational emotion.

That’s a very good point, I’m sure most Israelis are lovely wonderful people despite the government and atrocities being committed. I bet most Palestinians are equally wonderful. Maybe we should be against indiscriminately killing them?

You mean the organization that Israel influenced the creation of through decades of mistreatment and mishandling of the situation? The same one Israel is on record saying it’s a good thing as it allows Israel to treat Palestine as a hostile state? Basically exactly what they’re doing now, killing anyone and everyone and just shrugging and saying “because hamas”?

Yes, but also no. There are a bunch of other factors that contribute to a windows performance; manufacturer, type of gas used in the cavity, spacer material conductivity, thermal bridge free frame design, low e coatings and solar reflectance, and the quality of the installation matters most. Then there’s the windows efficiency relative to the rest of the assembly. If it’s a building code basic 2x4 wall from 1970 then you’re absolutely right, it would be overkill putting some triple pane krypton filled window in. But if you’ve got a foot of exterior insulation and are pushing a u value of 0.13 on your wall assembly then you need windows to match.

Source: certified Passive House designer, the most demanding energy standard for buildings available, that originated in … yup you guessed it, Germany.

Nothing wholesome every seeps lol love it. With you on the hovering around zero and wet though, that was my last big camp for three nights in Kootenay National Park. No problems staying cozy if it’s dry and cold, but the seepage gets to you.

Canada, and yeah when it comes to how we build we are definitely behind. Oil and gas is so entrenched in the economy, especially western provinces, that any going against that is blasphemy to a significant chunk of the population. It will get better though. We can already do better, the incentive just isn’t there.

I’m a certified passive house designer and I’m always jealous of all the products and materials available in Europe!

It’s not a distraction so much as it’s the bait. Gas cooking gets the utility serviced to the building, which enables the gas furnace vs electric heat pump conversation. Gas furnace is cheaper up front, so that’s what goes into suburbia.

Builders and developers will always do the absolutely cheapest thing possible to stay competitive, and will only do better when they’re either legislated to or consumers demand it. Home builders associations lobby to keep minimum requirements … minimal, and most consumers just see pretty showers and big kitchen islands, so this is why we still build houses like it’s 1980.

Always amuses me how many people care about gas mileage on a $50k car but couldn’t give two shits if their $2m home is efficient.

Source: I’m a home designer who frequently has this conversation and that’s usually how it goes down.