Efficacy of Dynamic Insulation in Mitigating Building Energy Demand across Canadian Climate Zones

In modern low-energy buildings, extensive thermal insulation effectively reduces heating demand in cold seasons but can intensify overheating and increase cooling loads during warmer periods. This dual challenge necessitates envelope strategies that balance thermal comfort with energy efficiency. Dynamic insulation (DI) systems, which adjust their effective thermal resistance (RSI value) in response to environmental conditions, offer a promising solution by mitigating overheating risks while reducing heating and cooling energy use. This study evaluates the energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) performance of DI applied to exterior walls of a single-detached, one-story house across four Canadian climate zones using the HOT2000 simulation tool (version 11). A two-step control strategy is employed, alternating between low- and high-RSI states during heating- and cooling-dominated seasons. Under Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (Zone 4C) conditions, the DI configuration RSI-0.4/5.46 achieves annual reductions of up to 44% in cooling energy and 33% in heating energy, corresponding to a total annual source energy reduction of 39% relative to code-required static insulation. When applied in Toronto (Zone 5A), Montreal (Zone 6A), and Calgary (Zone 7A), the maximum reductions in total annual source energy reach about 27.6%, 21.5%, and 10.7%, respectively, indicating that DI remains effective across diverse climates, with the greatest relative benefits in milder regions. GHG emission analysis shows total reductions of 1.10–2.60 kg CO2-eq/m2·year across the four cities, driven by both climate and electricity-grid carbon intensity. Overall, the results demonstrate that even simple two-step DI strategies can substantially improve the energy and carbon performance of residential buildings in Canadian climates.