Canadians burn a lot of fuel to keep our buildings warm in winter. WISE researcher Pooneh Maghoul believes a key way to cut heating bills and reduce our carbon emissions lies beneath our feet.

The geotechnical engineer set out to better understand the heating, cooling, freezing and thawing that occurs in the soil surrounding building foundations. These are processes that depend not only on air temperature and heat loss from the building but also on the level of moisture in the soil.

Maghoul…