A conditioned crawlspace is a crawlspace constructed and insulated so that it is part of the conditioned space of the house. Conditioned crawlspaces remain less common than vented crawlspaces despite performing better in terms of safety, health, comfort, durability and energy consumption.
The following documents examine the benefits of conditioned crawlspaces, how and why they work, and how to understand and interpret relevant sections of the building code. Related documents, such as those discussing basement insulation more generally, are also included in this section.
An edited version of this Insight first appeared in the ASHRAE Journal.
Think of the good old days—the Civil War, WWI, the Great Depression, WWII—crawlspaces were uninsulated. They were ventilated and they didn’t have ground covers—and they didn’t have problems. Why?
Transformations, Inc. is a residential development and building company that has partnered with Building Science Corporation to build new construction net-zero energy houses in Massachusetts under the Building America program. There are three communities that are being constructed through this partnership: Devens Sustainable Housing (“Devens”), The Homes at Easthampton Meadow (“Easthampton”) and Phase II of the Coppersmith Way Development (“Townsend”). This report covers all of the single-family new construction homes that have been completed to date. The houses built in these developments are net zero energy capable homes built in a cold climate. The set of measures offered by the developer exceeds the 30% energy saving goals set by the Building America program for New Homes in the cold climate for 2013. The houses will contribute to developing solutions and addressing gaps in enclosures and space conditioning research.
