23 Jan, 2014
Conventional construction practices do not always produce airtight building because of the difficulty in tying together multiple materials and layers that comprise the exterior skin of a building.
Air barrier systems in commercial and industrial buildings are estimated to reduce air leakage by up to 83%.
This reduction translates into bill and consumption reduction:
• Gas bills reduced by more than 40%
• Electrical consumption decreased as much as 25%
But, conventional construction practices do not always produce an airtight building because of the difficulty in tying together multiple materials and layers that comprise the exterior skin of the building.
In contrast, the tilt-up panel product does not suffer from this difficulty.
According to the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) building code, tilt-up construction by itself functions as an air barrier. Only the standard practices of sealing at doors, windows and panel joints and terminating the roof casing are required to complete the air barrier.
To complement this superior air barrier performance, tilt-up buildings can also be constructed with insulated sandwich wall panels, providing a performance R-value (a measure of thermal resistance used in the building and construction industry) that exceeds the material R-value provided by the insulation alone.
Proving the benefits of this advanced air barrier and thermal performance, SiteCast Construction in Ontario gathered data from two elementary schools.
• School 1 – Measured 49,000 square feet and was constructed in 1996 using conventional brick and masonry construction for the exterior wall.
• School 2 – Measured 55,000 square feet and was constructed by SiteCast in 1999 using insulated tilt-up concrete wall panels.
The data indicated that school 2, constructed by SiteCast used 23% less electricity and 35% less natural gas on a daily basis, despite being 6,000 square feet larger. These reductions convert directly into operational savings for the school board, which has a greater budget impact than the original capital cost of construction.
To find out more on how you can reduce your energy costs and stay cool this summer, contact Adam today on 08 9248 5272
