As a part of the industrial revolution, the industrial building style welcomed new construction technologies. The concept was that the best designed systems could be applied in any climate and solve all problems related to building. Such building envelope systems were constructed in many different climatic regions. Each country can have different climates while the human comfort zone is relatively narrow.
The differences between outdoor environments and comfortable indoor conditions generate environmental loads on building envelope components. The control of indoor conditions is dependent on both building envelope systems and mechanical systems. Using appropriate building envelope systems for each building type, use, and climatic region can dramatically reduce overall energy input to the mechanical systems. Hence, better building envelope designs can improve performance while reducing energy consumption.
Monthly average conditions of five cities compared to ASHRAE comfort zone.
The cost of building envelope repairs and renewals has become a big issue for buildings. The cost of repairing and maintaining building envelope components is estimated at billions of dollars annually in Canada.
Ice dams are ridges of ice and icicles caused by melt water from further up the roof re-freezing lower on the roof. The “dam” created by the ridge of ice along the eaves can trap meltwater and result in significant leakage under and through the roofing, especially shingles and metal roofing. This leakage can cause damage to the sheathing, the roof structure, or the ceiling and walls below. Large icicles along the eaves can become a danger to people below if they fall.
This case study is conducted to develop strategies for designing improved internally insulated basement walls. The majority of houses in North America have been built with poorly designed basement walls with highly vapour permeable internal insulation. Conventional basement construction has experienced serious interstitial material deterioration problems. Hence, the improvement of these existing basement walls is desirable. The performance of two different systems which use low vapour permeance insulation is investigated in this chapter. This case study is an application of steady-state hygrothermal analysis which includes the thermal mass effects of soil and concrete walls associated with monthly exterior ambient temperature changes and soil depths.
This case study is conducted to develop strategies for designing improved internally insulated basement walls. The majority of houses in North America have been built with poorly designed basement walls with highly vapour permeable internal insulation. Conventional basemea
This case study is to develop strategies of using simplified analysis to determine hygrothermal crawl space conditions. In order to keep crawl spaces dry, the elimination of moisture gain from the ground, the control of crawl space temperature, the moderation of the crawl space RH by air exchanges with indoor air, and the removal of moisture by ventilation are possible approaches.
If a vapour barrier is placed on the ground, air exchange with indoor air and exterior air and the application of insulation can significantly control crawl space temperature. Crawl space humidity can be controlled by air exchange with the indoor and the exterior. Hence, the location of the insulation and the air exchange rates are important factors for the control of crawl space conditions.
In this case study, the effect of these factors on various systems of crawl space construction is investigated. A method of estimating crawl space conditions is established using the hygrothermal space balance method, developed from the principle of conservation of energy and mass. The method is applied to crawl spaces in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada.
