Net-Zero Envelopes.
Alberta's modelled default is 2.5 air changes per hour at 50 Pa. CHBA Net Zero requires a tested 1.5 for a detached house. Passive House requires 0.6, tested both pressurised and depressurised. Those are three different buildings.
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On a code-minimum house the airtightness number is an assumption. On a labelled house it is a measured result that either passes or does not, which changes what the envelope has to be designed to do and who has to be on site while it is built.
With the federal grant programmes closed, a measured result is now a private-value proposition rather than a rebate formality — what incentive money actually remains in this region is set out honestly, including what is not available.
The Numbers Each Programme Sets.
These are published technical requirements, not marketing positions, and the differences between them are large enough to change a wall section.
- CHBA Net Zero and Net Zero Ready: a 0 GJ per year EnerGuide rating with modelled renewables, and airtightness of 1.5 ACH50 detached or 2.0 attached — with NLA10 of 0.75 or 1.18 cm²/m², or NLR50 of 0.57 or 0.78 L/(s·m²), as alternative metrics.
- Passive House: space heating demand of 15 kWh/m² per year or a heating load of 10 W/m², airtightness of 0.6 ACH50 tested both over- and under-pressure, and total primary energy of 120 kWh/m² per year.
- R-2000: space heating and domestic hot water energy at or below 50 percent of the HOT2000 calculated target, plus 1.5 ACH50.
- The code's own Airtightness Levels, which give a label to a measured result: AL-1A at 2.5 ACH50 through AL-5A at 0.6, with matching NLA10 and NLR50 columns in Tables 9.36.6.4.-A and -B.
- The test method that counts: CAN/CGSB-149.10-2019, which supersedes the 1986 edition most published material still cites. Sentence 9.36.6.3.(1) requires a multi-point depressurisation test where the result feeds an energy model.
- EnerGuide Rating System v15 reporting in gigajoules per year, delivered by NRCan-licensed service organisations and registered energy advisors, using HOT2000 v11.
- Envelope figures well above Zone 7A code minimum, since the code targets — RSI 10.43 ceilings, RSI 3.08 walls — are a floor rather than a design for these programmes.
- Continuous air control at the junctions the code names in Sentence 9.36.2.9.(2), which is where a 2.5 house and a 0.6 house actually differ.
How a Target Number Drives the Build.
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Fix the target before the assemblies
1.5, 1.0 or 0.6 ACH50 are not increments of the same wall. Each one moves the air barrier to a different plane and changes which penetrations are acceptable at all.
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Choose where the air barrier lives
Closed-cell foam clears the air barrier material threshold at roughly 25 mm, which makes it a candidate for the continuous plane. Whether that is the right plane depends on the drying strategy, not on the material.
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Test mid-construction
A diagnostic depressurisation test with the walls open finds the leaks while they are still reachable. The leaks you can seal with open walls become very expensive once the drywall is up.
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Verify and label
The final test either meets the programme requirement or it does not. A pre- and post- pair of numbers, or an achieved Airtightness Level, is a code-defined claim the client can quote rather than a contractor's adjective.
Frequently Asked Questions About Net-Zero & Passive House Insulation
What airtightness does a net-zero house need?
The CHBA Net Zero and Net Zero Ready technical requirements set 1.5 air changes per hour at 50 Pa for a detached home and 2.0 for attached, with equivalent thresholds expressed as normalised leakage area of 0.75 or 1.18 cm²/m² and normalised leakage rate of 0.57 or 0.78 L/(s·m²) — any one of the three metrics may be used. The home must also reach a 0 GJ per year EnerGuide rating with modelled renewables, using ERS v15 and HOT2000 v11, and every home gets a plan evaluation, an airtightness test and inspection by a CHBA-qualified net zero energy advisor.How is Passive House different from net zero?
They measure different things. Net Zero is an annual energy balance — the house produces as much energy as it uses. Passive House is a demand and load standard: space heating demand at or below 15 kWh/m² per year or a heating load at or below 10 W/m², total primary energy at or below 120 kWh/m² per year, and airtightness at or below 0.6 ACH50 tested in both directions. The 0.6 figure is the one that reshapes the construction sequence, because it is four times tighter than Alberta's modelled default.Is there rebate money for a high-performance build in Alberta right now?
Very little, and it is better to say so. The Canada Greener Homes Grant is closed and the Canada Greener Homes Loan closed to new applicants on 1 October 2025. The Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program is live but delivered only through participating provinces, and Alberta is not among them. There is no provincial residential envelope rebate. The Clean Energy Improvement Program is real and covers insulation, but it is financing repaid through the property tax bill rather than a rebate, and neither the City of Red Deer nor Red Deer County appears on the official participating-municipality lists. For new construction specifically, the CMHC Eco Plus premium refund and the first-time home buyers' GST rebate are federal measures that still exist.Does spray foam get a house to Passive House airtightness on its own?
No material does. Closed-cell foam is an unusually good air barrier material — published Canadian products test at around 0.002 L/(s·m²) at 25 mm against a 0.020 material limit — but the code's own language is about the air barrier system, continuous across joints, junctions between assemblies and every penetration. At 0.6 ACH50 the losses are at service penetrations, window and door interfaces, and transitions between planes, not in the middle of a wall. Foam removes one class of leak. Detailing removes the rest.What does a blower door test cost and how long does it take?
Published figures from the BC Energy Step Code programme put a final test in the range of $400 to $600 and a mid-construction diagnostic test at $300 to $500, taking roughly one and a half to two hours on site, performed by an NRCan registered energy advisor. Those are published British Columbia figures for context, not a quote from us — testing is an independent service and the advisor bills it directly.