Insulation Thermal Capacity: A Better Metric for Thermal Insulation in Summer
Thermal capacity is the ability of an material to delay and reduce a heat wave as it moves through a building assembly. It works alongside thermal resistance, and it measures a complementary property. R-value quantifies how much an assembly resists……
What if buildings could make us healthier?
What if buildings could make us healthier? We track steps, calories, heart rates—so why not architecture? When we talk about improving buildings, the conversation is usually cosmetic or mechanical: add a plant here, throw in some double glazing, maybe upgrade the……
Passive House Retrofitting Strategies: Longevity and Efficiency
High Performance and Passive House Retrofitting Strategies for Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Buildings. How long should a building last? This question has shifted over time. Do we build for the length of a 30-year mortgage, 50 years, or a century?……
The Window as a “Solar Panel”: Light Transmittance & Solar Factor G
With this article, we cover two very important aspects of glazings: light transmission and the solar heat gain coefficient. These parameters are extremely important for performing buildings and passive houses, however they are often overlooked by both designers and window…
Thermal Transmittance U vs Th. Resistance R
To achieve thermal comfort and energy efficiency in buildings, a primary role is played by the thermal envelope: this is required to thermally decouple the indoor environment from the ever-changing external conditions, both in summer and in winter. The structures…
What’s an insulation material?
With more and more people talking about building energy efficiency and passive houses, it has become more and more common to hear about insulation. In this article, we explain what an insulation material is, to try and shed some light……
Airtightness: why is it so important?
With this article, we address one of the most important topics in the field of energy efficiency: the airtightness of the thermal envelope. Whether the building is a new construction or a renovation, its airtightness plays an important role for…
Thermal bridges: the PSI value
For new builds as well as energy retrofits, worldwide the construction industry is shifting more and more towards zero energy buildings and Passive Houses. With the thermal envelope becoming more and more advanced, the correct evaluation of thermal bridges becomes…
Building Form Factor: The Most Overlooked Driver of Cost and Efficiency
When addressing the energy efficiency of a building, one of the most important players in the game is the compactness of its thermal envelope. Is there a way to measure the compactness of a building? Yes: it’s the compactness ratio.
DesignPH: the SketchUp plug-in to design Passive Houses in 3D
We finally had the chance to test DesignPH, the SketchUp plug-in that allows you to carry out the preliminary design of passive buildings in 3D. Once the model is created, you can export the data to PHPP (the energy balance…