OVERVIEW
The building envelope protects us from the elements, enables comfort, and ultimately allows us to be at home in our houses, to be productive at the office, to learn in school, or to heal in the hospital.
A building envelope—also commonly called a "building enclosure," should:
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support comfort
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manage moisture
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not poison us or the planet
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allow us to breathe clean air
When possible, it should do all this while using resources effectively—durably, energy-efficiently, and with low embodied impacts.
Here you’ll find strategies for envelope design and material selection that help balance all these demands and more.
IN-DEPTH
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The Challenge of Existing Homes: Retrofitting for Dramatic Energy Savings
July 10, 2007Feature Article
Greenhouse gas emissions associated with residential energy use account for a fifth of all emissions in the U.S. Retrofitting existing houses to achieve a two- to three-fold reduction in energy use is necessary if we are to achieve the emissions reductions scientists say are required for avoiding catastrophic climate change. Here's a look at how it can be done.
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Passive Survivability: A New Design Criterion for Buildings
May 3, 2006Feature Article
Buildings and their occupants are vulnerable to threats ranging from storms and rising sea levels to accidents and terrorism. In this feature article, EBN describes how to design and construct buildings to maintain livable conditions in the event of extended power outages or loss of heating fuel or water.
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How Six Affordable Housing Projects Got to Green
October 6, 2017Feature Short
Stories of designers and developers who overcame the challenges of building affordable housing that is also green, sustainable, and healthy.
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Glass Façade with Vacuum Insulation
October 6, 2017Product Review
Sedak’s Isomax system incorporates vacuum insulated panels into insulated glazing units to create thin glass façades with improved thermal performance.
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SonicLQ: Reconnecting Acoustics and Airtightness
September 7, 2017Blog Post
Early on in our work on energy-efficient homes, the connection between airtightness and sound centered on airport noise; now a new technology reconnects acoustics and air leakage
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Pete’s Puzzle: Mold on Painted Clapboards is Food for Thought
August 29, 2017Blog Post
There is mold on the factory-primed, latex top-coated wood clapboards on the south but not the north side of our house
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A New Halogen-Free Polyiso Insulation from GAF
August 2, 2017Product Review
GAF now offers a full line of polyisocyanurate foam insulation that is free of toxic halogenated flame retardants.
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New York State Launches Initiative to Scale Net-Zero Retrofits
July 25, 2017News Brief
The state has budgeted $30 million to develop a self-sufficient, private sector-based market for deep energy retrofits of multifamily buildings.
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Mineral Wool Batts Now Formaldehyde-Free
May 26, 2017Product Review
Thermafiber and Roxul have introduced the first formaldehyde-free mineral wool batt insulations, following the example set by the fiberglass insulation industry.
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Going to School for Building Enclosure Commissioning
May 2, 2017Blog Post
What I learned from a University of Wisconsin course called “Commissioning Building Enclosure Assemblies and Systems”
