Tag Archives: Energy

Designing enclosures from the outside in

There are well-established best practices for delivering energy-efficient buildings on the path to net-zero. After site selection and building orientation, perhaps the most important consideration is the building enclosure or envelope. Next, the energy conservation measures (ECMs) are determined based on the envelope’s predictive energy-efficiency performance; they also include lighting, HVAC equipment, and controls. The last step for high-performance, low-energy buildings involves designing performance contributions of renewable energy technologies.

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Turning Retrofits into Success Stories with IMPs: A success story in the making

In London, Ont., a multi-residential apartment building built in 1970 was beginning to show significant signs of wear and tear on its exterior clay through-the-wall (TTW) brick, and owners had to develop a plan. Having already undertaken smaller localized repairs in the past, new water penetration issues on the upper, west-facing floors where the building is susceptible to driving rains, were cause to go in another direction.

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Turning retrofits into success stories with IMPs

Driven by the principles of high-performance energy (HPE) buildings through government, energy codes, and the green building movement, building energy designs across Canada and around the world strive to improve. The increasing focus on the implementation of energy-efficiency requirements, for both new construction and deep energy retrofits for commercial and public buildings, begins with envelope-first energy efficiency, reduced energy demand loads, and related greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions.

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Glazing performance and sustainable design

Glazing is an integral part of modern design. From a thermal standpoint, glazing and its structure or frame is the weakest point of a wall assembly.1 A double-glazed vinyl window with argon’s U-factor (i.e. thermal transmittance) is typically around 3 W/(m2 K). This means the window will gain or lose around 3 W per m2 per degree Celsius. An efficient fibreglass window system’s U-factor can be as low as 1 W/(m2 K). An aluminum curtain wall system can range as high as 4 W/(m2 K). On the other hand, the U-factor of a 152-mm (6-in.) steel stud, with batt and exterior continuous insulation, can be around 0.4 W/(m2 K).

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The need for energy performance targets

When it comes to the energy efficiency of its buildings, Canada is something of a paradox. On one hand, the country has received its fair share of accolades for green initiatives. For example, this author was in France in September for an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) TC205/TC163 joint workshop, and received laurels for coming from the world’s only nation with a holistic building commissioning standard—Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Z320-11, Building Commissioning. On the other hand, the country recently ranked 11 out of 12 on the 2012 American Council for an Energy-efficient Economy (ACEEE) International Energy Efficiency Scorecard.

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Reducing energy consumption with exterior sheathing

With the ever-increasing demand for efficiency in new buildings, as well as the retrofitting of existing facilities, exterior sheathing plays an integral role in reducing energy consumption and the associated carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. (This article deals with insulating, not structural, sheathing). Exterior insulation, continuous across all structural members without thermal bridges (other than fasteners and service openings), is the most thermally effective way to insulate a building. The sheathing’s thickness depends on the climate zone.

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Selecting and achieving the proper air barrier

Air barriers have been a requirement of the National Building Code of Canada (NBC) for many years, but not all design professionals fully understand what is involved in specifying one. An air barrier may be a material of many functions and the choice of one over another should reflect the needs of the particular project. Historically, the requirements for airtightness have been found under NBC Part 5, “Environmental Separation.”

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