Extreme Heat and Overheating

Each person in B.C. can take actions to reduce the risk of overheating during extreme heat. Wherever you live, there are things you can do. The information below will help you find out how you can prepare for and manage extreme heat and other emergency events.

Prepare for extreme heat

• Read the be prepared for extreme heat webpage for information about what you can do before, during and after an extreme heat event
• Download the Extreme Heat Preparedness Guide (PDF, 9.2MB)
• Learn about extreme heat and wildfire smoke health effects on BC Housing's webpage
• Check the COVID-19 information for strata housing webpage, for information about what strata councils and residents can do during an extreme heat event or wildfire

Stay up to date

• Visit the BC Centre for Disease Control's preparing for heat events webpage for information about heat alerts and regional health authority contact information
• Access the public weather alerts for British Columbia
• Learn more about emergency alerts in B.C. and the Alert Ready Emergency System

• The CleanBC Better Homes BC program helps British Columbians find rebates for some upgrades (such as, insulation, windows, doors and more) that save energy and lower greenhouse gas emissions. There are rebates for existing buildings and rebates for new home building
• The Canada Greener Homes Loan can help Canadians make their homes more energy efficient and comfortable. The program uses financing and grants to help with some retrofits that may be recommended by an energy advisor

• The CleanBC Better Buildings BC program provides funding and capital incentives to encourage energy efficient design, construction and renovation of commercial buildings
• BC Housing’s Mobilizing Building Adaptation and Resilience is an ongoing project to help people protect their homes or buildings from the impacts of climate change
• The Union of BC Municipalities has a Community Emergency Preparedness Fund available to help  local governments, First Nations and communities when responding to emergencies
• The CleanBC Communities Fund provides funding for projects that reduce the use of fossil fuels and those that make buildings more energy efficient
• Natural Resources Canada’s Office of Energy Efficiency launched the Toward Net-Zero Homes and Communities program in July 2022. This program offers funding for projects that will increase the energy efficiency of Canadian homes. Governmental organizations, Indigenous communities or governments, other organizations and community and environmental groups can apply. Application intake closes in September 2022

• BC Housing’s 2019 Design Guide Supplement S3 on Overheating and Air Quality (PDF, 12.7 MB) provides ways to address overheating and indoor air quality. Some important items include the use of vegetation to provide shade and bypass mechanisms for heat recovery ventilators
• Energy Efficiency in Existing Buildings (Standard 100) is an international building standard developed by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). Standard 100 provides procedures and program essentials through improved energy efficiency and performance in existing buildings. In 2021, the ASHRAE 100 User’s Guide (PDF, 7.2 MB) was released and provides more details about Standard 100
• In 2021, the Climate resilience buildings: guideline for management of overheating risk in residential buildings was released. The document provides information to manage risks to overheating in residential buildings
• The Climate-resilient buildings and core public infrastructure 2020 report assesses how climatic design data for buildings and bridges may change as the climate keeps getting warmer

• BC’s Climate Preparedness and Adaptation Strategy was released in June 2022 and includes actions to help people and communities across B.C. prepare for and adapt to climate change
• Some of the actions in the Climate Preparedness and Adaptation Strategy will help with extreme heat, like trying to make heat pumps more affordable for people and businesses
• In June 2022, the B.C. Coroners Service released a report about the 2021 heat dome called Extreme Heat and Human Mortality: A Review of Heat-Related Deaths in BC (PDF, 1.2 MB). The report recommended adding requirements about cooling to the BC Building Code for new housing construction and existing home renovations. The BC Building Code already recommends that buildings be designed so that temperatures inside remain at a comfortable level
• Other work is underway that will consider the topic of overheating in buildings in the context of our changing climate:
• For new buildings, the next edition of the BC Building Code will be released in 2023 and will consider overheating, including passive and mechanical cooling measures
• For existing buildings, the Province plans to release an Existing Buildings Renewal Strategy
• Also for existing buildings, the Province and Codes Canada are working to release an alterations code in 2024. This alterations code will use a ‘building-as-a-system’ approach and focus on guidance about energy efficiency improvements. Since a building using energy more efficiently is usually more economical to operate, a goal of this work is to identify affordable and practical energy efficiency improvements that can be part of voluntary alterations and renovations. The process of developing the alterations code will consider co-benefits and avoiding unintended consequences. More information about the approach can be found on the National Research Council’s website