Energy and Thermal Bridging

With high performance building standards and with the new energy code updates driving more projects to consider the Target Performance path, with its prescribed EUI target/monitoring requirements, thermal bridging and the impact on whole building energy performance are coming into the spotlight. This presentation addresses the latest thermal bridging research and resources as they relate to whole building energy performance utilizing our energy performance mapping tool, which helps design teams readily visualize energy decisions on projects. We review the recently published guide on low thermal energy demand for large buildings (think Passive House or Net Zero Ready).

The presentation will cover thermal bridging, specifically how and where thermal bridges occur, what they are and how they can be mitigated, and how thermal bridging impacts overall building energy use. A case study using the highly visual energy performance mapping tool will be featured and methods of making energy-related design decisions using parametric energy modeling and visualization will be shown.

Learning Objectives:
1. Discuss how and where thermal bridges occur and how they can be mitigated.
2. Describe the impacts of thermal bridging and effective R-values on building energy use.
3. Identify a combination of passive design strategies (including thermal bridging reduction) and design process strategies (such as parametric energy modelling) as part of integrated design that can lead to high performance low energy and low carbon buildings.
4. Summarize available design resources to apply the above concepts to design higher performance buildings.

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Presenter:

Medgar Marceau, P.E., CDT

Medgar has a unique mix of building envelope, energy modeling and life-cycle assessment (LCA) experience. In addition to Medgar’s building science expertise, he has extensive knowledge in whole building energy simulationand material science including infrared thermographic analysis, modeling of air and moisture transfer through envelope systems, air leakage, and mass transfer. Medgar’s sustainability goal is to help designers increase building durability and reduce building energy consumption.

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