My House Was Too Cold, now it’s Too Hot

Jun 1, 2026

Jamie Unruh

Maintaining the right temperature of a home, no matter the season, is kind of like Goldilocks and The Three Bears, sometimes it’s too hot, sometimes it’s too cold, so what can you do to make the temperature just right?

In the Calgary area, summers are normally mild, so when addressing insulation needs, Old Man Winter is what we’re really insulating against.

Homeowners tend to focus more on comfort and heat retention in the winter time, because the load on the insulation is going to be the highest when it's the coldest outside.

When a home is insulated, it is being made airtight and adding R-value (the measure of how well the material keeps the heat inside) to the home. This works well because houses have furnaces inside of them, and the furnace air is what’s being insulated in order to keep the house warm in the winter.

If the home is still cold despite good insulation, it might be time to look at how the furnace and ducts are running.

When dealing with a home that feels too hot, there are a few things a homeowner can do to alleviate the heat, such as upgrading attic insulation, making sure air is ventilating, or utilizing air conditioning.

Shivering in Your Sanctuary

When a house is too cold, it can be difficult to narrow down the source to one thing. Typically, the issue is to do with the insulation or the heat source, in most cases, a furnace.

The first thing to check is the attic space to make sure it’s in good condition. Things to look for include, exposed floors or cantilevers, orin the case of one room feeling colder than the rest of the home, look for separate ceiling spaces.

A room colder than the rest of the house is usually due to an exposed floor or cantilever. If that is indeed the issue, then the solution is to insulate it properly, which means removing the soffits for this space from the exterior and having spray foam installed on the underside.

If the attic has exposed areas, getting an insulation top-up is a great option.

Furnace Function

If the attic insulation looks good, then check out the furnace.Make sure it is running as it’s supposed to.

If the furnace is in good running order, having an insulation company like Beyond come in to do an assessment or have a blower door completed on the home with thermal imaging. A blower door is a machine that can detect where air leaks are happening.

After that, a recommendation can be made on what insulation upgrades would be ideal for the home.

Furnace Filters

Changing the furnace filter regularly can change how well the furnace runs. The filter is usually located where the intake air enters the furnace.

If the incorrect filter for a furnace is installed, it can affect how much warm air it produces. If there’s a high-grade filter installed (meant to stop particulates) or if the filter hasn’t been changed in a while and is covered in dust, the filter is then restricting the amount of air that is going into the furnace and consequently, the amount of air that is coming out of it.

Air returns may pose a similar issue. If there are no appropriate air returns in a space, then that area may not get much warm air from the furnace. Air returns draw air out of a room, which causes negative pressure. This then naturally draws more air out from the floor vents, keeping that cool air flowing.

Air Ducts

One more thing to look at is the air ducts travelling from the furnace throughout the house.Sometimes these ducts run though cold spaces like a crawl space which makes the warm air from the furnace cool down on its way to its destination. If this is the case, Beyond Group recommends insulating the crawl space, the ducts or both to ensure your home is properly insulated and comfortable.

Boiling in Your Abode

Insulation's only as good as the heat source that you're putting into it, but in the summer, that equation is opposite: the insulation's only going to be as good as the cool air that you introduce into the building.

During the summertime a lot of buildings don't have air conditioning so a well-insulated house can absorb much of the heat from the sun that is beating down on the exterior of the house. Most roof shingles are darkin colour which will only help absorb the heat and have it radiate into the attic space. Dark siding will also affect heat absorption from the sun.

With that heat lingering inside a well-insulated house, it’s going to get very warm.

A/C and Trees Is the Way to Be

If the house is well insulated, and it feels too hot, our recommendation at Beyond is to install air conditioning whether central air or a portable unit. As mentioned above, the insulation is only as good as the heat source or the cool source that you're introducing into the home.

The type of air conditioning will depend on the size of a space that you need to cool down. Portable units are great for individual rooms such as needing the cool air to sleep at night, but central air is good for situations when the entire home is too hot.

Other than air conditioning, understanding the ebb and flow of a home is helpful when a house is too warm. Opening windows in the cooler hours of the morning and closing them before the air gets too warm allows cool air to meander throughout the home.

Opening windows on the east side and the west side of a house should create a good air flow.

A tree in the yard is also helpful to reduce the load of heat from the sun upon the house.

Still Too Hot? Time For an Attic Inspection

If the attic is not well insulated, it can definitely make a house warmer than it should be even with air conditioning. In those cases, we at Beyond can help steer clients towards a DIY attic inspection, or we’re happy to come by and check it out for you.

There are two things that Beyond can do to help. We can put more insulation between the hot attic and the house so that less heat dissipates into the home, or we can look at the ventilation in the attic and make sure air is circulating well. Good ventilation will pull that radiating heat outside.

Just like the Three Bears story, having the right temperature in your home makes it a comfortable place to be. If it’s too hot or too cold, there are things to look into to make sure your home is running efficiently.Still not sure why your home is on one extreme or another? Give our insulation team a call today!

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