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Environment

 Take Action Now By Starting At Home.

Optimize Systems to Make Buildings More Efficient

Buildings are composed of several interconnected systems. For a building to operate efficiently, these systems must be individually tuned and collectively synchronized. Unfortunately, it is a rare thing to find a building with optimally performing systems.

Buildings and their systems waste energy and natural resources due to misguided occupant behavior, design errors, construction oversights, improper system installation, lack of performance-based knowledge, mis-communication between contractors, wear over the years, and damage due to animals. An on-site energy assessment by Energy Beyond Design determines exactly what is wrong with building systems and to fix the problem.

Air Infiltration Reduction:

stack_effect

The Stack Effect pulls cold air from the dirty crawl space into the house, wastes heating energy, and causes comfort problems for occupants.

The average building has enough holes, gaps, cracks, penetrations, and electrical receptacles to re-create the effect of a window being open all year long. The air infiltration through these holes is a major source of heat loss and we often find ourselves wasting resources to heat the outside. Reducing this air leakage requires a combination of weatherization and sealing strategies which significantly reduce the amount of heat lost, and in turn, reduce the amount of energy needed to heat the conditioned space. Properly performing insulation also can help reduce air leakage. Controlling air leakage can quickly result in energy use reduction, reduced moisture problems and can help keep out pollutants and odors from places like the attic and crawlspace.

Pressures:

Hot moves to cold as high pressure moves to low pressure. When you combine building pressures with thermal bypass areas (holes), uncontrolled air movement occurs. Driving forces of pressure can come from the use of ventilation fans, heating and cooling equipment and even clothes dryers. The outdoor environment also plays a huge factor of pressure when it comes to wind speed & direction, and temperature differences as it relates to the building. As occupants, we start to feel the affects of pressure as it forces air through holes (thermal bypasses) in the form of drafts and heating & cooling inconsistencies.

Ventilation:

In most older buildings, air leakage plays the primary role to ventilate the occupied space. Reducing air leakage in a building without considering replacing the natural ventilation air with proper mechanical ventilation can actually have negative effects on the occupants and the building. This risk is highest in buildings with significant sources of indoor air pollution, such as back-drafting from gas appliances or high occupancy levels. If a building does not have mechanical ventilation, it may be recommended that a ventilation system be installed before any air leakage is significantly reduced. Energy Beyond Design adheres to ASHRAE standards.

Moisture:

Moisture is not always a problem. In fact, there are plenty of climates that welcome it through the form of mechanical equipment such as humidifiers. However, in most climates, if not properly controlled, moisture can become a major problem in a building and to better understand the common problems, we have to look at the physics of moisture and how it moves. The concept of moisture movement is in-line with pressures. It moves from areas of high vapor pressure to areas of low vapor pressure (from hot to cold). Heated indoor air is attracted to the cooler air outside and cooled indoor air will attract heated outside air. In both scenarios, we start to see why air sealing can help to control moisture problems as moisture begins to travel.

Properly controlling moisture in a building will improve the effectiveness of air sealing and insulation efforts. Thus, moisture control contributes to a home’s overall energy efficiency. The best strategy for controlling moisture depends on the particular climate and how the building is constructed. At Energy Beyond Design, we take into account your buildings location, climate zone, relative humidity, ventilation and dew points. We generally find opportunities such as a crawlspace vapor barrier to help control the harmful effects of uncontrolled moisture movement.