Building envelope

The Passive House (PH) building standard is the most stringent energy efficiency standard in the world. Several affordable housing authorities in the US currently or plan to include it as a sustainability option in funding applications. Achieving the stringent air tightness requirements of the PH standard requires careful coordination through all phases of design development and construction. The team from Steven Winter Associates will take you through the steps and tools necessary – including integrated design, air barrier documents, detailed site inspections, and review testing tools and protocols. They will share successes and failures from their wide experience, from three-story low-rise buildings to 33-story high-rise structures with 300+ units.

Architects, designers, builders and facility managers are often in the dark about environmental and especially climate change impacts as they look at exterior material choices for new construction, cyclical recladding, and overcladding. Cost and appearance are important parameters that usually drive the final choice. Cladding materials used in construction are critical to carbon reduction goals and loom larger as operational energy use diminishes. This session will provide tools, rules of thumb, and sources of information and will look at methodologies available to sort through climate impacts of cladding choices in North American residential and commercial markets.

Rhode Island’s first PHIUS certified passive house was built for $160/sq. ft. In this session, builder Steve DeMetrick of DeMetrick Housewrights will walk through the entire construction process, from excavation to finish for this 1800-square-foot home. Steve will get down to real details, like how to airseal electrical boxes in zip sheathing and what to do with all those mini split lines. Steve’s approach blows away all the mystery (and $$$) out of high-performance construction. Grab a cup of coffee and come learn about what’s happening in Rhode Island.

Our current framework for net-zero buildings doesn’t account for embodied carbon – that is, carbon pollution created during material manufacturing and distribution. In this session, we will show how systems thinking about carbon and an integrated design approach can change building practices from a problem to a solution. We will present data on the embodied carbon impact of green buildings; address how to quantify embodied carbon in design/build practices; and discuss present-day carbon-positive construction materials and assemblies, which can reduce the carbon load in the atmosphere. This effectively uses buildings as carbon-sequestering reservoirs, which can mitigate and even reverse climate change effects. Understanding the carbon cycle, and how we as design/build practitioners can make beneficial choices, is the next horizon for integrative green building.

Affordable housing offers a huge opportunity to refinance and rehab to the Passive House standard. The project team from Chris Benedict, R.A. and RiseBoro Community Partnership will show construction details from their ground-breaking tenant-in-place rehab project designed for Passive House. CBRA will discuss the construction challenges (and successes!) to date, and RiseBoro will outline the financing and development approaches that should motivate all stakeholders to pursue this path.

We truly regret having to cancel this session. Terry Brennan is unable to attend.

This session will focus on applying Passivhaus/Passive House standards to large buildings: recent research on the impacts of tall buildings, from architectural enclosure detailing, mechanical systems, zoning, code, marketability, and constructability; and optimal management of internal loads.

Two certified Passive House Consultants, an architect and a builder, will talk about the tremendous benefits of the Passive House building approach, and nostalgically lament what this means for our now limited friendships with the boiler maintenance guy! They will review the design and construction principles that are employed to achieve a super-insulated, air-tight envelope and the essential addition of continuous mechanical ventilation.

There are five basic components of building envelopes, each of which needs increased attention to meet and exceed current Energy Code while providing comfort for building users and durability and resiliency for building owners: 1. Opaque Assemblies - Walls and Roofs 2. Fenestration 3. Air Barriers 4. Thermal Bridging 5. Foundation Insulation and Slab Edges Join Jim and Jodi as they share revealing and entertaining stories from their practice. Engage in a discussion on how the challenges they reveal can be addressed by applying the nine habits of sustainability.

States across the Northeast expend significant time and effort in the pursuit of adopting the latest model energy codes from the IECC and ASHRAE. With the 2009 and 2012 model energy codes this resulted in significant improvements in the minimum building standards, but more recently national model codes have produced fewer savings at a time when the need for dramatic energy performance improvements has never been greater.

The current building codes let you build moisture-safe unvented roofs using spray foam or rigid board foam. But what about just using cellulose or fiberglass instead? Our team has been studying this issue over many climate zones for years. The current Building America/Department of Energy-sponsored research has a test hut here in Massachusetts, looking at a variety of assemblies, over the past two winters. Cellulose vs. fiberglass? Diffusion vents vs. no diffusion vents?

The PHIUS Passive House Primary Energy (PE) criteria is currently set at 6200 kWh/occupant/year. Recent multifamily Passive House projects have not met PE by passive measures alone but have required onsite renewable energy generation. Is it possible for cost-effective passive measures to meet the PE goal?

This session outlines key strategies to help your team make informed decisions around building assemblies, products, and finishes. Whether you’re looking for simple, low-cost upgrades for a remodeling project or building new for a client with allergies or chemical sensitivities, you’ll walk away with new ideas to put into practice.

New this year, Lightning Rounds pack as much information into one session as possible. You’ll hear succinct, to-the-point, and practical presentations on a variety of topics, including: Chilled Beam Advantages: Chilled Beam systems offer a unique opportunity to integrate the HVAC system into the architectural elements of a building while reducing energy costs, maintaining enhanced indoor air quality and promoting significant occupant comfort.

We know. You want to geek out about clever construction details and cutting edge construction methods, and in the process perhaps learn some strategies that you can bring back and apply to your own work. Well then, this is the session for you.

The growth of renewable energy is a hopeful and positive sign for society. It is not merely a fuel switch, however; it is a disruptive technology that is revolutionizing the fundamental economics of the grid itself. As fossil-fuel “storage” is supplanted by intermittent renewable energy, peak load is transitioning from demand-driven to supply-driven, and shifting the focus from “energy” to “power."

Recent research revealed that an estimated $11M in energy cost is wasted annually due to open vents at the tops of tall buildings. The vents are code-mandated but are left open, allowing tall buildings to become chimneys in winter. A NYSERDA study report published by Urban Green Council quantified the energy impact and recommended retrofits to halt the airflow escaping from elevator and stairwell shaft vents.

Windows are arguably the most important architectural element in a home, impacting the appearance, comfort, energy use, ventilation, and overall enjoyment of our homes in a number of ways – some not so obvious. This interactive session will explore important details concerning windows, including how they impact comfort, how they can be used to supplement a heating system and assist with ‘passive survivability’ when the power fails (with real data from four homes), and their impact on annual energy use.

Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) is a masonry product with a long history in much of the industrialized world, yet it has seen relatively limited use in the United States. The two presenters, Dan Levy and Steve Bluestone, both find AAC preferable to wood as a building material for many reasons, including resistance to fire, water, mold pests, and structural loads. And AAC does all of the above with a single material installed by a single trade.

The phrase “natural building” tends to evoke images of humble, rustic homes built out of mud and sticks by barefoot idealists in rural backwaters. The natural building movement has come of age, however, and today's professionally-executed natural buildings can match any green building in air-tightness, energy use intensity, durability, and aesthetics, all while achieving reduced levels of embodied carbon and enhanced social benefits.

Super-insulated construction, simple yet efficient building systems, and modern solar generation have made net zero energy a realistic project goal for new construction even in cold climates. However, achieving this without the use of red-list materials is a serious balancing act. Moisture control, air tightness, and thermal isolation are critical; evolving envelope products must be tested.

Existing buildings have a unique story to tell, and we as designers and engineers must tune our design process to "hear" how our buildings actually perform. On-site monitoring of dynamic environmental conditions provides empirical evidence for building performance, which adds granularity to energy modeling practices and empowers the design team to effectively analyze unique envelope characteristics.

Our speakers are building enclosure consultants steeped in wall moisture solutions through data-rich research, computer simulations, lab testing, live performance monitoring – as well as a myriad of “house-calls” to clients. They’ll offer takeaways on building moisture-safe walls, including insulating sheathing, ventilated claddings, inward vapor drives, and vapor retarder paints.