Interesting!
I'm also a Minnesotan, and this is one of the reasons I love watching "Holmes on Homes" on HGTV. Since the show is made in Canada, he does a great job of showing what should be done to keep a house tight, regardless of whether the temp is 80 above or 80 below.
The main place people lose heat - I've learned in my travels - is around the windows. Once those windows are insulated tightly enough, you're golden!

This is a great topic to bring up. I, too, am a northern Minnesotan, and my husband is a licensed builder (3rd generation.) His grandfather built his whole life, and SWORE a house "Needs to Breath." All the vapor barrier codes he saw in his later years were turning houses into condensation-filled greenhouses. (not the kind of "green" we're aiming for.)
My husband, who keeps up on his continued ed. and training, is very trusted in his trade, and an expert on ventilation, tends to believe the old timers (like his grandpa) knew what they were talking about. Houses need to be able to breath. It's all about proper ventilation. And it CAN be done right. You can have an energy efficient home that can breath. Breathability is not just a moisture issue, but an overall air-quality issue.
As for windows - absolutely, you don't want air coming in around them. BUT - plain & simple - glass has next to no R-value. So yes, cold transfers through them. But attics & roofs are where I'd argue many houses actually lose the most heat. Which leads to condensation & frost build up in your attic, as well as ice dams on your roof. Which leads to a mess, and all amounts to higher energy consumption.
I'm interested in looking into these articles, thanks for sharing!

When I saw your post, I immediately thought of buildingscience.com -- and there it is! Great resource.

Another thing: I disagree with bodicegoddess -- you lose the most heat through a poorly insulated attic, through the "chimney effect." Heat rises, dissipates throught the attic, and draws cold air in through the basement and drafty windows. Insulate & air-seal your attic as well as your basement, and the chimney effect no longer sucks cold air in through the windows.

I also live in Minnesota and have a real issue with heat escaping my home due to poor insulation, or lack of insulation. Here's my problem, maybe someone has a good suggestion for me. We have a third floor walk-up attic that we'd like to renovate some day but for now, it is completely empty and has no insulation. Our second floor bedrooms are very cold because of this issue and to make matters worse, our 100 year old home has heat vents that are just below the crown molding, so very high up on the wall (in the bedrooms this is). Right above that is the uninsulated attic. So, how can we fix this problem for the time being until we are ready to fully renovate the upstairs attic? Any suggestions? Thanks!

We live in a not-so-old house (1950s) that was built out of bits of older houses (all the windows, doors, radiators, etc.) and we are pretty sure it has no insulation. This is not so bad on the main floor as we have storm windows over our oldschool, single-paned, wooden-sashed windows, but the upstairs attic leaks heat like a sieve.

We've been thinking about maybe doing spray foam insulation in the walls. Would our wooden windows be enough to let the house breathe? Also - the house has wooden siding and a poured cement basement (with lots of cracks that let in plenty of moisture in the spring! Lol...).

I'd never really considered the issue of houses breathing properly, but it definitely makes sense. Just like windows on office buildings or in schools that do not open make no sense at all - why run the a/c when it's perfectly gorgeous outside and opening a window could cool the building down naturally?

@lillielechic - I'm a native North Dakotan (I live in central NY now) and the only thing I could think of is if you either rerouted your forced air vents through a renovation or if you somehow extended the pipe from the top of the wall down to the bottom.

Forced air heat sucks - we had that in the house I grew up in - which is now 110 years old. But that house was small and compact and the vents were in the floors. Although we did have some directional thingies on top of the vents to make the air go across the floor instead of just straight up the wall. You could maybe try that with your wall vents? Like putting in little shields to direct the air downward?

I've had radiator heat in an apartment and now in our house and I love it! Next to radiant floor heating, I'd say it's the best way to heat your house. It's too bad not every house has it. Geothermal radiant heat would be even better.

But I digress...

lillielechic - what with the lack of building scientists it's hard for people to get a really thorough assessment but you should have a good builder look at your particular situation. From what you've said though you might consider air-sealing the separation btw the 2nd & 3rd floor incl. a good tight hatch door to attic. Talk to a good builder.

We have a historic brick home in downtown Toronto and are dealing with a lot of the same issues. In addition to reading Lstiburek's articles I would strongly recommend as required reading the book Water in Buildings: An architect's guide to moisture & mould by William Rose. His bio on the back cover says he is "a Research Architect at the Building Research Council at the U of Illinois. His research, which focuses on moisture and its effect on buldings, is used by the U.S. Dept. of Housing & Urban Development..." This guy is older than J.L. and brings a life time of research and observation to the topic. And he put together a great little chapter on the history of the research that is still largely the reasoning behind Can & U.S. building code requirements on moisture (which as it turns out is pretty weak). And you don't have to be an architect to read it. An interest in water/vapour is all that's necessary.

I just finished reading it and having done a degree in architecture, a few building science continuing ed courses at the university here and reading Lstiburek, I thought it was an eye opener (& entertaining).

I bought it directly from John Wiley & Sons website. It's expensive but not as expensive as hiring an architect to tell you how to fix your house and cheaper than taking a course in building science. You're not likely to find any cheap second hand copies of this book. It's the kind of book people buy and will never sell (well maybe 40-50 years from now).

Thanks for the ideas on ways to solve my cold upstairs. I'll look into some of these options in hopes of enjoying a warm house this winter!