HVAC in Stirling

Stirling at a glance

Stirling is a village on Highway 4, about 31 km southeast of Lethbridge. It's designated a National Historic Site of Canada as the Stirling Agricultural Village.

What that means for your heating

Historic homes in a heritage village were built long before modern insulation and ductwork. Heating them evenly can be a challenge, and adding ducts isn't always practical. Ductless mini-splits can heat and cool without opening walls.

Open farmland

Stirling is surrounded by farmland in the County of Warner, with little to slow the wind. Houses exposed on all sides lose heat quickly in a cold wind, so sealing drafts and checking furnace filters often matters. Farm buildings, shops and older outbuildings near the village are often heated separately, with unit heaters or wood stoves. Any gas-fired heater in a shop needs proper venting and a yearly check, and every building where people spend time should have a working carbon monoxide alarm.

A railway water stop

Stirling began as a water stop on the narrow gauge railway the Alberta Railway and Coal Company built in 1899 from Lethbridge to Great Falls, Montana, following the old Whoop-up Trail. The first station south of Lethbridge sat near "18 Mile Lake" so locomotives could take on water, and the siding was named for J. A. Stirling, an executive of a company that helped fund the railway. At first only station staff lived there. A village with that long history has a mix of older and newer homes, and older furnaces deserve a yearly safety check.