Every new Ontario house, and a lot of additions and conversions, has to prove it meets the energy rules before the permit is issued. In Ontario those rules live in Supplementary Standard SB-12, not in 9.36. If your designer keeps saying 9.36, that is your first warning sign.
Here is how SB-12 works in plain English: the two climate zones, the two ways to comply, the form the examiner wants, and the mistakes that send drawings back.
SB-12 is a supplementary standard to the Ontario Building Code. It sets the minimum energy performance for houses: how much insulation, how good the windows, how efficient the furnace or heat pump, the HRV, and the water heater.
It does not tell you what size furnace to buy. That comes from the CSA F280 heat loss. SB-12 sets the minimum quality of the house. F280 measures how much heat that house needs on the coldest day. You need both on a permit, and they have to agree with each other.
Ontario is split into two SB-12 climate zones. Zone 1 is the warmer south, under 5,000 heating degree days. Zone 2 is 5,000 degree days and colder, which covers northern Ontario, roughly North Bay and Sudbury and up. Most of Southern Ontario, including Muskoka, is Zone 1. Your zone picks which table of packages you use.
Section 9.36 is the national code’s energy section. Ontario does not use it for houses. Designers who work in several provinces sometimes copy 9.36 language onto Ontario drawings. Examiners notice. It costs you a resubmission and a couple of weeks.
You choose a compliance package for your zone and your heating fuel, then build to its list: ceiling, wall, basement and slab insulation, window U-value, minimum furnace or heat pump efficiency, HRV efficiency, water heater efficiency, and in some packages a drain water heat recovery unit. No modelling. Cheapest and fastest.
An energy modeller builds a computer model of your actual house and proves it uses no more energy than the same house built to the package. Most Ontario modellers use NRCan’s HOT2000 software. Costs more, but lets you trade: more glass here, better walls there.
Some recognized energy programs can be used to show compliance. If you are building to one, ask your building department which programs they accept before you count on it.
For a typical house with normal windows, the prescriptive path is the right answer nine times out of ten. You go the performance path when the house does not fit a package: walls of glass facing the lake, an unusual heating system, or a design where you want to trade one thing for another.
The packages assume a limited amount of glass compared to wall area. Big view windows push you over. Then you are on the performance path whether you planned it or not. Count the glass before you pick a package.
The form says R-60 in the ceiling and the section drawing says R-50. The form says a 95% furnace and the mechanical says something else. The examiner checks one against the other.
A lot sitting right on the Zone 1 and Zone 2 line needs the right zone. Guess wrong and every number on the form is wrong with it.
Some packages require heat recovery equipment. If the package needs it and the drawings do not show it, it comes back.
The F280 has to use the same insulation and window values as the energy form. A heat loss done on a guess will not match.
A house with a gas furnace upstairs and a heat pump in a basement unit may need the energy side shown for each part. Ask before you submit.
We build ICF homes, so we see this from both sides. ICF walls usually meet or beat the wall insulation in the packages, and they are tight. That gives you room to work with on the performance path.
Radiant floors need their own care on the energy form. Slab insulation under heated floors is not optional, and the heat source still has to meet the package efficiency. Do it right and an ICF house with radiant floor heating is cheap to heat. Do it wrong and you are heating the ground under the slab.
Building new? We match the heat loss, the HVAC design and the energy form to the same set of drawings, so nothing disagrees.
Get Free Quote →The form the examiner wants and how to fill it in without getting it bounced. Read the EEDS guide.
What changed for heating and ventilation on January 1, 2025. Read the changes.
Why ICF houses need a real calculation, not framing defaults. Read the ICF guide.
Picking and sizing the heat recovery ventilator the package calls for. Read the HRV guide.
The ventilation summary that goes with your permit. Read about the MVDS.
Who signs the design and what goes on the form. Read about Schedule 1.
No. Section 9.36 is the energy section of the National Building Code. Ontario does not use it for houses. Ontario houses show energy compliance through Supplementary Standard SB-12, which the Ontario Building Code points to. If someone quotes you 9.36 for an Ontario house, they copied from the wrong code book.
Usually yes for the new or changed parts. An addition, a basement you are finishing as living space, or a conversion of a seasonal building to a full-time home all have to meet the energy rules for the work you are doing. The examiner will want an energy form with the permit. Ask your building department exactly which form they want for your project.
Prescriptive means you pick a package and build to its list: insulation, windows, furnace efficiency, HRV and so on. No modelling. Performance means an energy modeller proves your actual design uses no more energy than the package house would. Prescriptive is cheaper and faster. Performance gives you freedom, and you pay for the modelling.
The designer responsible for the energy design fills it in and signs it. For most houses that is the BCIN designer doing the drawings or the mechanical. An owner building their own house can do it under the owner exemption, but the form still has to be right.
Yes. ICF walls usually meet or beat the wall requirement in the packages, and they are very airtight. On the performance path that extra wall performance can pay for things you want elsewhere, like more glass.
SB-12 sets minimum efficiencies, not the size. The size comes from the CSA F280 heat loss. But a better envelope from SB-12 lowers the heat loss, so the equipment usually gets smaller. That is money back.
Send us your drawings. We do the CSA F280, the HVAC design and help with the energy form so the examiner sees one story, not three.