BUILDEX Vancouver: The Importance of Structural Thermal Breaks in Meeting Future Energy Building Codes and Improving Building Envelope Efficiency

Christian Cianfrone, Principal and Building Energy Specialist, will be presenting The Importance of Structural Thermal Breaks in Meeting Future Energy Building Codes and Improving Building Envelope Efficiency at this year’s BUILDEX Vancouver conference. This session will take place on Thursday, February 16 at 8:30 a.m.

Session Overview:

Recent evolutions in building energy codes, such as the City of Vancouver’s newly adopted rezoning policy and the upcoming BC Stretch Code, focus much more on the efficiency of building envelopes. Not only is there an emphasis on reducing heat loss from building envelope assemblies, there is also scrutiny on interface details where significant thermal bridging occurs.

Balconies and other cantilever construction elements, which project through the building envelope, break the insulation layer, and create thermal bridges. Incorporating a thermal break within structural elements can significantly improve the thermal performance of building envelopes.

This session will discuss solutions to thermally break the external structural components from the building envelope, minimizing thermal bridging, energy loss, and thereby mitigating moisture and mold issues.

Attendees will get a brief overview of the City of Vancouver’s new rezoning policy with a focus on the new “TEDI – Thermal Energy Demand Intensity” metric. Speakers will also discuss innovative technologies for structural thermal breaks at balconies and their impact relative to meeting new building energy requirements.