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?
An edited version of this Insight first appeared in the ASHRAE Journal. Water causes enough trouble by itself, but when we add salt we go to a whole different level, especially where porous materials are concerned. What is the deal with porous materials? Simple, porous materials are capable of wicking water large distances due to capillary suction. And when water can move large distances only bad things can happen.
An edited version of this Insight first appeared in the ASHRAE Journal. How hard can it be to insulate a flat sheet of concrete? I mean you only have three choices – on the top, on the bottom, or on the edge. OK, you might have some combination of the three as well.
