>while we don't have extremes in temperature here - guess that's why they call it a temperate climate - building regulations regarding insulation are getting stricter by the year.
>Makes sense to me : beat the problem at its source

And I've recently read about some new apartments in Sweden, where two people can warm the place up, by their body heat, from 0^o C to 18^o C in about half an hour. The insulation is so good.

These are experimental, of course, but I guess some of the materials used should be commercially available soon.