Thermal Bridging

[Cadair]

This is more for my own curiosity.

When doing your structural design, how much does thermal bridging enter into your mind? With steel? With wood?

 

[idecharlotte]

I do residential. I think about thermal bridging and building science in my design many times. I shake my head at some of these commercial buildings. I don't know why energy standards are not as high for commercial as it is for residential. It really doesn't cost much to provide an energy efficient structure that performs well..

http://www.idecharlotte.com

 

[SLTA]

I do mostly residential, too. Around here, the architects are all super-trained in green building ideas, so I leave that up to them. I usually ask if they're planning to use advanced framing techniques, etc, before starting design. Thermal bridging can be handled by exterior rigid foam, which is an architectural detail.

 

[Brad805]

ide, there is one reason the commercial regs are less. Triple net leases. Low tech tenants rarely look into the thermal efficiency of the building and it is in the owner's interest to keep the building cheap to maximize returns. Until the leasing rules change, I doubt we will see much improvement. I was in one ice rink that was a tilt style building, and it had zero insulation in Canada.

Brad

 

[Lion06]

We often design thermal breaks for steel that passes from outside to inside. This usually consists of an end plate moment connection with a korolath pad between the end plates.