Envelope design guidelines for Federal office buildings: Thermal integrity and airtightness

Technical Report · Mon Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1993

OSTI ID:6497254

Persily, A K

Office building envelopes are generally successful in meeting a range of structural, aesthetic and thermal requirements. However, poor thermal envelope performance does occur due to the existence of defects in the envelope insulation, air barrier and vapor retarder systems. These defects result from designs that do not adequately account for heat, air and moisture transmission, with many being associated with inappropriate or inadequate detailing of the connections of envelope components. Other defects result from designs that appear adequate but can not be constructed in the field or will not maintain adequate performance over time. Despite the existence of these thermal envelope performance problems, information is available to design and construct envelopes that do perform well. In order to bridge the gap between available knowledge and current practice, NIST has developed thermal envelope design guidelines for federal office buildings for the General Services Administration. The goal of this project is to transfer the knowledge on thermal envelope design and performance from the building research, design and construction communities into a form that will be used by building design professionals. These guidelines are organized by envelope construction system and contain practical information on the avoidance of thermal performance problems such as thermal bridging, insulation system defects, moisture migration, and envelope air leakage.

• Research Organization: National Inst. of Standards and Technology (BFRL), Gaithersburg, MD (United States)
• OSTI ID: 6497254
• Report Number(s): PB-93-183770/XAB; NISTIR--4821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320107* -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Building Systems-- (1987-)
AIR INFILTRATION
AIRTIGHTNESS
AVOIDANCE
BEHAVIOR
BUILDINGS
COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS
COMMUNITIES
CONSTRUCTION
DEFECTS
DESIGN
DOCUMENT TYPES
EFFICIENCY
ENERGY
ENERGY CONSERVATION
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS
HEAT
INFORMATION NEEDS
LEAKS
MATERIALS
MIGRATION
MOISTURE
NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
OFFICE BUILDINGS
RECOMMENDATIONS
REGULATIONS
REGULATORY GUIDES
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SAFETY STANDARDS
STANDARDS
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
THERMAL INSULATION
TRANSMISSION