Thermal Impact of Fasteners in High-Performance Wood-Framed Walls: Preprint
Buildings are heavy consumers of energy, and residential building design is rapidly addressing topics to maximize energy conservation en route to net-zero energy consumption. Annual energy analysis of a building informs the choice among disparate energy measures, for cost, durability, occupant comfort, and whole-house energy use. Physics-based and empirical models of elements of a building are used in such analyses. High-performance wood-framed walls enable builders to construct homes that use much less than 40% of the energy consumed by similar homes built to minimum code. Modeling for these walls has considered physical features such as framing factor, insulation and framing properties, roughness and convective effects, and air leakage. The thermal effects of fasteners used to construct these walls have not been fully evaluated, even though their thermal conductivity is orders of magnitudes higher than that of other building materials. Drywall screws and siding nails are considered in this finite element thermal conductivity analysis of wall sections that represent wood-framed walls that are often used in high-performance homes. Nails and screws reduce even the best walls' insulating performance by approximately 3% and become increasingly significant as the framing factor increases.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 1009269
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/CP-5500-47678; TRN: US201106%%495
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Presented at the Thermal Performance of the Exterior Envelopes of Whole Buildings XI International Conference, 5-9 December 2010, Clearwater Beach, Florida
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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AIR
BUILDERS
BUILDING MATERIALS
DESIGN
ENERGY ANALYSIS
ENERGY CONSERVATION
ENERGY CONSUMPTION
FASTENERS
OCCUPANTS
PERFORMANCE
RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
ROUGHNESS
SIMULATION
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY
ENERGY USE
THERMAL PERFORMANCE
FASTENER
Electricity, Resources, and Buildings Systems
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