Ontario has signalled its intent to remain among the energy efficiency leaders in North America for new building construction in adopting American National Standards Institute/American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-conditioning Engineers/Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA) 90.1-2010, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-rise Residential Buildings.
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When it comes to engineering its buildings, Canada has made great strides in durability and energy efficiency requirements with respect to codes and programs such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). Unfortunately, despite these green leaps, it seems the basic lessons learned over the past decade or so still have not been applied to most building envelopes. In other words, we have structures designed to have service lives of 50 to 100 years, with enclosures only equipped to last for 10 to 15 years.
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A curtain wall is a cost-effective building exterior enclosure system, and can be an esthetically pleasing envelope for many building types. From high-rise residential to office buildings, glass curtain wall cladding can provide architecturally eye-catching and highly marketable views for occupants. However, it is not an exterior cladding normally associated with high thermal and solar gain performance for reduced building energy use.
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