From log houses to Near zero energy buildings

Author(s): David W. Yarbrough, Mark Bomberg, Anna Romanska-Zapala
Paper category: Proceedings
Book title: International Conference on Sustainable Materials, Systems and Structures (SMSS 2019) Energy Efficient Building Design and Legislation
Editor(s): Marina Bagarić, Ivana Banjad Pečur, Hartwig M. Künzel
ISBN: 978-2-35158-217-6
e-ISBN: 978-2-35158-218-3
Publisher: RILEM Publications SARL
Publication year: 2019
Pages: 04-13
Total Pages: 10
Language: English

Abstract: This paper starts at humble beginnings of building science reaches development of net zero energy buildings. The knowledge accumulated from observed failures in construction slowly formed a basis for a predictive capability. In doing so it became evident that interactions between energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality, and moisture management are so important that these three issues must be considered simultaneously. Now we talk about environmental control of indoor environment and a clear change in the mindset of the scientific community is in progress.
Forty years after completion of the first ten passive homes there was a shocking observation; an adequate technology exists but our lack of vision prevents wide-spread use of this technology. We need to modify our vision to deal with the dynamics of buildings to maintain comfort and building durability with affordable cost. If the quest for sustainable buildings is the goal we should learn more from nature; e.g., termites appear capable of optimizing transient conditions to maintain a stable interior comfort zone. Thus, we propose a new compact design package called environmental quality management (EQM) that is applicable to different climates with modifications of some hygrothermal properties. This will be the second step for a building science (physics) needed to become a leading force in the transition to sustainable built environment.

Online publication: 2019
Publication type : full_text
Public price (Euros): 0.00