http://www.buildingscience.com daily 1 2010-01-26T02:05:02Z http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/digests/bsd-005-green-building-and-sustainability The construction and operation of buildings consumes over a third of the world’s energy consumption, and 40% of all the mined resources. Striving to make buildings more sustainable, while saving construction and operating costs and improving health and occupant well being is not only possible and practical, it should be the goal of the building industry. Achieving this goal requires an awareness of the problem and the skills to design, specify, construct, and operate buildings in a manner that is often quite different from current standard approaches. This digest will review the challenge of sustainability, discuss methods of assessing green buildings, and recommend a process by which more sustainable buildings can be delivered. No publisher John Straube Building Science Digests are information articles intended for professionals. The author and the publisher of this article have used their best efforts to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. The author and publisher make no warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, with regard to the information contained in this article. The information presented in this article must be used with care by professionals who understand the implications of what they are doing. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional shall be sought. The author and publisher shall not be liable in the event of incidental or consequential damages in connection with, or arising from, the use of the information contained within this Building Science Digest. durability rain screen radiation ASHRAE doc-Digest photovoltaics resources-mold 2013-04-02T03:45:33Z BSC Article http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/digests/bsd-108-investigating-and-diagnosing-moisture-problems Water comes in four forms: solid, liquid, vapor and adsorbed. All four forms can cause grief to building owners, designers and contractors. When water causes building problems investigating and diagnosing the problem can be challenging because water constantly changes its form inside a building and within its materials. The investigator must hunt down the water thinking like water. No publisher Joseph Lstiburek Building Science Digests are information articles intended for professionals. The author and the publisher of this article have used their best efforts to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. The author and publisher make no warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, with regard to the information contained in this article. The information presented in this article must be used with care by professionals who understand the implications of what they are doing. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional shall be sought. The author and publisher shall not be liable in the event of incidental or consequential damages in connection with, or arising from, the use of the information contained within this Building Science Digest. guidance-Enclosure design principles moisture-Diffusion/Vapor Pressure moisture-Flashing/Deflection resources-technical vapor permeance moisture-Vapor Permeance air barrier doc-Digest analysis-Material Properties moisture-Physics of Moisture Control airflow-Airtightness/Air barrier vapor barrier resources-mold 2013-04-03T00:07:27Z BSC Article http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/digests/bsd-144-increasing-the-durability-of-building-constructions The current building industry focus on durability is in part a reaction to the current perceived lack of it. Warranty claims and callbacks are viewed as increasing. Litigation and insurance costs are felt to be rising as a result. Another reason for the current focus on durability is the recognition that sustainability is not possible without durability. If you double the life of a building and you use the same amount of resources to construct it, the building is twice as resource efficient. Therefore durability is a key component of sustainability. It seems that one thing that both the development community and the environmental community can agree on is that durability is a good thing. What do we know about durability and how do we know it? The lessons of durability have come principally out of failure. Engineering is an iterative process of design by failure. Buildings are constructed. Problems are experienced. Designs and processes are changed. Better buildings are constructed. The building industry is in essence a reactive industry, not a proactive industry. It can be argued that the industry continues to do things until they become intolerably bad and then the industry changes. Examining failures gives us guidance on increasing the durability of building constructions. No publisher Joseph Lstiburek Building Science Digests are information articles intended for professionals. The author and the publisher of this article have used their best efforts to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. The author and publisher make no warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, with regard to the information contained in this article. guidance-Enclosure design principles moisture-Diffusion/Vapor Pressure moisture-Drainage plane guidance-Below-grade enclosure type-high-rise radiation ASHRAE type-institutional doc-Digest moisture-Convection/Air barriers analysis-Material Properties residential ventilation type-low-rise 2013-04-02T03:49:12Z BSC Article http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-003-concrete-floor-problems An edited version of this Insight first appeared in the ASHRAE Journal. Perhaps it was the drug culture of the 60’s that turned brains into coleslaw but it is hard to understand the lunatic practice of placing a layer of sand over the top of a plastic ground cover under a concrete slab in California. No publisher Joseph Lstiburek moisture-Capillary break guidance-Below-grade enclosure doc-Insight resources-technical moisture-Moisture storage ASHRAE airflow-Airtightness/Air barrier resources-homeowner 2013-03-01T03:23:45Z BSC Article http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-009-new-light-in-crawlspaces 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? No publisher Joseph Lstiburek moisture-Diffusion/Vapor Pressure resources-homeowner guidance-Below-grade enclosure airflow-Physics of Air Movement doc-Insight moisture-Vapor Permeance thermal-Physics of Thermal Control resources-technical relative humidity moisture-Physics of Moisture Control climate-Building design and climate resources-mold 2012-12-05T02:41:25Z BSC Article http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-023-wood-is-good-but-strange An edited version of this Insight first appeared in the ASHRAE Journal. If someone invented wood today it would never be approved as a building material. No publisher Joseph Lstiburek relative humidity doc-Insight ASHRAE 2013-03-06T18:46:55Z BSC Article http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-064-bobby-darin-thermal-performance An edited version of this Insight first appeared in the ASHRAE Journal. This all started pretty innocuously. I just wanted a client to have a warm floor. How complicated could that be? No publisher Joseph Lstiburek flooring problems airflow-Physics of Air Movement doc-Insight LEED ASHRAE ENERGY STAR ghosting thermal-Airspaces 2013-04-03T00:00:49Z BSC Article http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/information-sheets/gm-building-america-quality-control-checklist-appendix This appendix contains Building Science Information Sheets that provide more information for specific inspection points on the BSC Building America Quality Control Checklist. Each Information Sheet is a one or two page document that can easily be printed for use on site or attached to a trade scope of work or contract. No publisher Building Science Corporation doc-GuideManual Building America 2013-04-05T19:30:30Z BSC File http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/profiles/etw-orlando-profile No publisher Building Science Corporation doc-EnclosuresThatWork doc-BuildingProfile climate-zone-hot-humid 2012-02-14T17:19:44Z BSC Article http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/profiles/etw-houston-profile No publisher Building Science Corporation doc-EnclosuresThatWork doc-BuildingProfile climate-zone-hot-humid 2013-01-24T17:56:47Z BSC Article http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/profiles/etw-maitland-profile No publisher Building Science Corporation doc-EnclosuresThatWork doc-BuildingProfile climate-zone-hot-humid 2013-01-24T17:53:14Z BSC Article http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/profiles/etw-atlanta-profile No publisher Building Science Corporation climate-zone-mixed-humid doc-BuildingProfile doc-EnclosuresThatWork 2013-04-02T04:22:33Z BSC Article http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/profiles/etw-louisville-profile No publisher Building Science Corporation climate-zone-mixed-humid doc-BuildingProfile doc-EnclosuresThatWork 2013-04-02T04:25:18Z BSC Article http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/profiles/etw-minneapolis-profile No publisher Building Science Corporation doc-BuildingProfile doc-EnclosuresThatWork climate-zone-very cold 2013-04-02T04:13:50Z BSC Article http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/case-studies/cs-ma-newton-ngrid-deep-energy-retrofit-comprehensive-cape-basement-renovation This test home provides an example of a thoroughly comprehensive retrofit that did not involve major additions or changes to the building footprint but, nonetheless expanded living space by including the basement within the thermal enclosure. No publisher Building Science Corporation guidance-Enclosure design principles resources-homeowner deep energy retrofit doc-CaseStudy climate-zone-cold resources-low-energy Building America renovation Retrofit doc-DesignsThatWork 2013-04-02T16:58:05Z BSC Article