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Thermal Bridging

This presentation explains the types of thermal bridges, their impacts, how to account for them, and practical ways to address them with efficient detailing and insulation strategies, including continuous insulation. 

The way we think about the health and safety of a building has changed. Building science leads the way in developing best practices and interventions that will result in the healthier buildings of tomorrow. This presentation provides a practical understanding of the topic and includes cost-effective, actionable guidance on how to design and construct healthy and resilient building envelopes in a post-COVID-19 pandemic world.

In this report, we will consider interventions that may be more enduring, proactive, and pre-emptive. During periods of crises they can supplement the interventions mentioned above. At all other times they can provide more “routine” health benefits that are more convenient and less dependent on maintaining social awareness and compliance. These interventions relate to controlling the environment where we spend most of our lives: indoors.

This presentation, given by Jay Crandell (ARES Consulting) and Amy Schmidt (Dow Building and Construction) at the 2018 RESNET Building Performance Conference covers topics in energy code compliance, such as calculating the R-value of a hybrid wall and determining air space performance contributions.

This guide from the Steel Framing Alliance, updated in 2015, addresses thermal design analysis and code-compliance best practices for cold-formed steel (CFS) framed walls. 

Thermal bridging can significantly impact whole building energy use, condensation risk, and occupant comfort. This presentation contains an overview of the various types of thermal bridges and their impacts and a discussion of repetitive metal penetrations for cladding and component attachments.

The focus of this report is on uniformly distributed point thermal bridges. The main goal is to provide data to help better understand the implications and support an equitable, performance-based treatment of such thermal bridges for common building assembly conditions and variations.