Presentation Overview:
Trying to realize your return on investment if you were to build to a higher building performance? There are several drivers to build a high-performance building. While energy and carbon savings should be included on the list, there are several others that always seem to be forgotten. What about comfort, safety, health, building durability and its resilience to extreme weather events? And for the cakes icing, insurance claims and premiums aren’t going to be dropping. In fact, it may very well come to getting insurance is cost prohibitive or totally uninsurable, in the relatively near future – seriously!
Back to comfort, health, and the doomsday prophecies. Does someone buy a BMW SUV to save at the pump? Usually not, if you hesitated. Comfort, safety, and (sometimes) durability/reliability are the drivers. Then why do we view the greatest investment and the place we spend most of our lives so different? Added costs put the project over budget? Then cut the sqft or downgrade your finishes that have a life expectancy of less than 20 years and put it into your 50 year plus envelope and systems. “Well how long will my added investment take to pay off?” Really? A US study found 20% of childhood asthma is linked to gas stove use in California (https://www.ajmc.com/view/gas-stove-smoke-accounts-for-12-of-childhood-asthma-in-the-us-study-finds). Let’s move forward, we know how.
So now if you’ve decided to build to a higher standard – more insulation and better windows (remember comfort?), thermal bridge free construction and a good and well installed HRV (health); what next? “Can I build the same way as I did before?” No. Not unless you like to gamble (did I mention insurance futures?). See, the more insulation you pack in your walls, the less the waste heat loss through your walls. The less heat loss, the colder the exterior walls, and the wetter the building materials. Most materials don’t like it if they stay wet for long periods. Remember building durability?
Right. So the more we insulate and demand more out of our buildings, the more the building sciences matter, and the more important that we get it right…the first time.
Learning Objectives:
- The need for Building Science
- What makes a building high-performance; why do the buildings sciences become even more critical for those buildings
- Better understand building control layers, and how to analyze them in buildings
Speaker Bio:
Grant Wilkin, Principal at Litebox
Grant Walkin is a building envelope engineer and principal with Litebox. He is a building scientist with a dedicated passion for high performance and architecturally inspiring buildings. Grant’s knowledge and expertise stretches from the exterior cladding to the interior, while keeping the mechanical loads and comfort systems of the building in mind for a cohesive design. The building envelope first approach is studied extensively for each project to maximize passive and simplified strategies. Grant enjoys engaging with the international green building community through events, forums, and social media to share experiences, both successes and failures. He is currently on his second self-build deep energy retrofit to continue his passions, so that those experiences can be passed onto all this projects.
Thursday March 21st, 2024
2:30 pm - 3:45 pm (registration starts 2:00)
Members $0 / Future Members $20
Event Location: Red River College Princess Street
Room: P107-CGA
