On Sunday, December 8 the workshops listed below will be presented from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Registration for the workshops is separate from the conference. The cost to participate is $100. You can register online here.
Workshop 1: No Way, That’s Impossible
Sunday, December 8
Start time: 8:30 a.m.
End time: 12:00 p.m.
Description:
1. Believe it or Not: Field Realities
Presenter: Peter Spafford
This session will use actual projects to demonstrate how easy it is for issues in the air and vapor barrier to arise in the field and why they occur. Examples of proper installations and key points for how to ensure proper installation of air and vapor barrier materials in the field will also be presented.
Peter Spafford is the Director of Quality Assurance for ABAA. He has been involved in building enclosures for over 25 years as an educator, and field auditor performing 3rd party inspections and quality control on behalf of government, quality assurance providers and warranty programs.
2. Research: What Needs to Be Done
Presenter: Laverne Dalgleish
This session will discuss research projects that are needed to increase our understanding the building enclosure for durability, sustainability, and performance. In order to continue to reduce energy consumption, and provide owners with healthy buildings, continued efforts in research is a must.
Laverne Dalgleish is the Executive Director of the Air Barrier Association. Mr. Dalgleish has dedicated his career to understanding the building enclosure and moving our industry forward through research, writing of standards and presenting around the country.
3. Whole Building Air Leakage Testing
Presenter: Lee Durston
This presentation reviews the process of testing a building and provides insights to lessons learned from having run hundreds of tests. As whole building air tightness testing is becoming mandated in some parts of the country and seen in our standards and codes, insight on how to properly run the tests will help everyone better understand this process.
Lee Durston is a Senior Building Science Consultant and Principal for Morrison Hershfield. Mr. Durston has been involved in Whole Building Testing for projects all over the country including for owners like USACE and has a wide expertise in Building Envelope Commissioning.
4. Don’t Let the Roof Destroy your Walls
Presenter: Roy Schauffele
This workshop examines roof wall intersections and the various types of products used with this interface. Project examples of both good and bad intersections including some solutions for the audience to use after attending will be provided.
Roy Schauffele is the owner of Division 7 Solutions, Inc. a consulting firm focused on the building enclosure. Mr. Schauffele was the first Technical Director for SPRI (Single Ply Roofing Institute), Past Chair of the Air Barrier Association of America and the only person in the world to be both a Fellow for CSI and the ABAA. He has extensive knowledge on both air barriers and roofing materials as his extensive career which has allowed him to work and research in both genres for decades.
Workshop 2: Fun in the Lab: Air and Moisture Leakage Calculator
Sunday, December 8
Start time: 1:00 p.m.
End time: 4:30 p.m.
Description:
1. Air Calculator and Moisture Leakage
Presenters: Andre Desjarlais and Som Shrestha
The Air & Moisture Calculator allows any user to input simple numbers and details about their project like location, size, architype, and then compare the energy use and potential moisture in the walls of a typically poorly built, air leaky building to a code required building and leakage rates below code-compliant building or buildings with leakage rates below code..
Andre Desjarlais works for Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the Building as the Program Manager for the Building Envelope & Urban Systems Research Program. Mr. Desjarlais has been involved in building envelope material research for over 40 years, is a leader in ABAA’s Research Committee, past Chairman of ASTM C16 and an ASTM Fellow, serves on ASHRAE’s Technical Committee Operations and was a founding Director of the RCI Foundation.
Som Shrestha is an R&D staff member within the Building Technologies Research and Integration Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His current research is focused on the experimental and analytical study of the energy performance of building envelope, equipment, and systems. He is ANSI-accredited, ASHRAE certified Building Energy Modeling Professional.
2. ASTM E331 on Steroids: Ultimate Wall Assembly Test
Presenter: Andrew Dunlap
Many have felt ASTM E331 has needed to be upgraded to deal with today's assemblies. This presentation will go over the ABAA Standard which is being prosed to ASTM to improve upon wall assembly testing.
Andrew Dunlap leads the Building Technology Studio for the Smith Group. He is a Vice Chair for ABAA, Secretary for ASTM E06, involved with the IIBEC Commissioning Certification development, Past Chair of the Greater Detroit Building Enclosure Council, Co-Chair of the ABAA Research Committee and was named the AIA’s Young Architect of the Year.
3. Technical News from ABAA
Presenters: Andrea Wagner Watts and John Posenecker
ABAA’s Technical Committee Chairs will provide insight to what ABAA is doing within industry and review a few of their latest Technical Documents focusing on the Building Enclosure.
Andrea Wagner Watts is the Commercial Application Leader for DuPont Performance Building Solutions. Ms. Wagner Watts is also Co-Chair of ABAA’s Technical Committee, active in ASTM and a published author and speaker.
John Posenecker is a Principal Consultant for Building Exterior Solutions. Mr. Posenecker has extensive experience in the field from construction of nuclear facilities to commercial construction. He is also the Past Chair of the Building Enclosure Council of Austin, Secretary for the International Concrete Repair Institute Austin Chapter, and Co-Chair for the ABAA Technical Committee.
4. Pull Adhesion Test Method
Presenter: Sarah Flock
The pull adhesion test method has recently been updated by ABAA and ASTM. This workshop will review what the current method entails and provide insight as to why it was in need of these changes.
Sarah Flock is a Principal for Rath Rath and Johnson. She is also a Vice Chair for ABAA, Past Chair of the Building Enclosure Council of Chicago, involved with IIBEC Commissioning Certification development, active in ASTM E06, ASHE, AIA Chicago, and co-chair of the ABAA Research Committee.
5. Air Leakage Modeling Inaccuracies
Presenters: Som Shrestha, Lisa Ng, and Andre Desjarlais
This session covers some of the concerns and issues with air leakage modeling in today’s software.
Andre Desjarlais works for Oak Ridge National Laboratory as the Program Manager for the Building Envelope & Urban Systems Research Program. Mr. Desjarlais has been involved in building envelope material research for over 40 years, is a leader in ABAA’s Research Committee, past Chairman of ASTM C16 and an ASTM Fellow, serves on ASHRAE’s Technical Committee Operations and was a founding Director of the RCI Foundation.
Som Shrestha is an R&D staff member within the Building Technologies Research and Integration Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His current research is focused on the experimental and analytical study of the energy performance of building envelope, equipment, and systems. He is ANSI-accredited, ASHRAE certified Building Energy Modeling Professional.
Lisa Ng is a mechanical engineer in the IAQ&V Group at NIST and has over nine years of experience in building-related fields, including building mechanical system design and research in airflow and IAQ performance in buildings. She is active in the development of strategies for incorporating more accurate infiltration estimates in building energy models and the application of multizone airflow and IAQ models to a range of building performance issues.
Workshop 3: Don’t Screw Up: There is a Better Process
Sunday, December 8
Start time: 1:00 p.m.
End time: 4:30 p.m.
Description:
1. Building Enclosure Commissioning: Where it Came from and Why it is Needed
Presenter: Fiona Aldous
Building Enclosure Commissioning (BECx) is one of the hottest buzz words in the enclosure industry. This presentation will go through the history and development of the process and provide reasons for why it is needed in our industry.
Ms. Aldous has commissioned numerous building enclosures and is an accredited Building Enclosure Commissioning Process Provider (BECxP), and Commissioning Authority + Building Enclosure (CxA+BE). She actively serves on ASHRAE technical committees, teaches on behalf of University of Wisconsin professional development BECx courses, was a prime author of the Building Enclosure Commissioning (BECx) industry’s founding document, NIBS/ASHRAE Guideline 3 - The BECx Process, and is currently convener for ISO 21105-01, Performance of Buildings — Building enclosure thermal performance verification and commissioning.
2. BECx Process in Action: The Process through Case Studies
Presenter: Melissa Payne
This presentation provides the audience a chance to witness the BECx process from start to finish using actual projects as examples to demonstrate this key process in our industry.
Melissa Payne works for Tremco Commercial Sealants and Waterproofing. She is a Building Commissioning Authority + Building Enclosure Knowledge (CxA+BE), forensic engineer, Level 2 Thermographer, Building Enclosure Commissioning Process Provider (BECxP), Chair of BEC-Ozark, and is working with ISO to develop their Enclosure commissioning standards.
3. Codes and Standards, Today’s Requirements for Tomorrow’s Buildings
Presenter: Chris Mathis
With building enclosures becoming more complex and owners wanting durable, energy efficient buildings, our codes and standards must continue to develop and provide guidance for construction teams to be able to meet these demands. This presentation explores the past and future of various building codes and standards regarding the building enclosure engaging you to think about what is needed for our buildings in the future.
Chris Mathis is President of Mathis Consulting Company. Mr. Mathis was the First Director for the National Fenestration Rating Council, Past Chair of BETEC, is active in Code and Standards development in ASHRAE, NFRC, ASTM and ICC, a Distinguished Lecturer for ASHRAE, and conducts seminars on building science, energy efficiency, and sustainability world wide.
Workshop 4: I Can See Glazing
Sunday, December 8
Start time: 8:30 a.m.
End time: 12:00 p.m.
Description:
1. What is going on with Glazing?: The Future of Glazing
Presenter: Stanley Yee
This workshop sheds light on today’s glazing systems and provides insight into what the glazing industry is doing to increase energy efficiency and improvements moving forward.
Stanley Yee is a Building Design Specialist for Dow. Mr. Yee is also the Past President of the Glass Association of North America and is internationally recognized for experience and knowledge in the glazing community.
2. Issues from the Field and How to Avoid Them
Presenter: Anthony Santocono
This presentation focuses on curtain wall and storefront window systems and discuss proper installation of these systems while using examples of what not to do in the field. The presentation will also provide guidance and suggestions for what to watch for as these systems are being installed to ensure they perform as expected.
Anthony Santocono has been in the glazing industry for over 33 years with 12 of them dedicated to a field investigator for Kawneer. He performs forensic and investigation services around North America and assists teams in determining the path forward for issues due to poor installation.
3. Sealants: A Sticky Situation
Presenter: Marcy Tyler
With so many chemistries, applications, and choices, sealants continue to confuse many people about where to use what? This workshop identifies the main types and chemistries of various sealants and provides recommendations on where and how they should be installed.
Marcy Tyler works for Tremco Commercial Sealants and Waterproofing. Ms. Tyler has a degree in Chemical Engineering and started out her career in research and development for Tremco. She also has extensive field experience from her time in Technical Services and is now the Director of Building Science for Tremco.
Workshop 5: We Know about Insulation – Sponsored by PIMA
Sunday, December 8
Start time: 8:30 a.m.
End time: 12:00 p.m.
Description:
1. Facing the Enemy of Insulation: Thermal Bridges
Presenter: Jay H. Crandell, P.E., ARES Consulting /Applied Building Technology Group, LLC
Thermal bridges are typically associated with framing elements within a building envelope assembly. These are well-known and are commonly addressed by use of recognized methods to determine a U-factor for an assembly. However, thermal bridges created at various interfaces between building envelop assemblies are less known and more often ignored. These types of thermal bridges include junctures between floor edges and walls, roof edges and walls, and fenestration and walls. While largely ignored in current codes and practice, poor detailing practices that fail to minimize thermal bridging and maximize insulation continuity (while maintaining structural continuity) at these building assembly interfaces can account for as much as 20 to 70 percent increase in heat flow through a building envelope. Thus, poor detailing has several building design implications including increased energy loss, potential error in estimating heating and cooling loads used to size equipment, localized moisture and durability risks, and reduced occupant comfort. These implications work against the fundamental purpose of insulation. Based in part on on-going work within the ASHRAE 90.1 standard committee, this presentation confronts a variety of thermal bridges and their impacts with methods of mitigation through improved detailing.
2. Optimizing the Thermal Layer within Low-Slope Roof Systems
Presenter: James R. Kirby, AIA, Building & Roofing Science Architec, GAF
Low-slope roofing assemblies include a wide range of insulation and membrane attachment methods. Often ignored is the effect of fasteners on the overall R-value of the system. This presentation will discuss R-value differences based on fastener location within the system. There are different initial costs associated with fastening the first layer of insulation and adhering the upper layers versus mechanical attachment of an entire system. Different installation methods also have different thermal performance which affect energy costs over the life of the roof. Multiple roof system attachment methods are analyzed for initial cost, R-value and cost of long-term energy use.
3. Providing Design Professionals Insight into Improved Prediction and Optimization of Building Envelope Thermal Performance
Presenter: Jerry Phelan, Covestro, LLC
Public awareness and interest in the benefits of increasing efficiency of buildings, along with the associated drive for increased stringency in energy codes, has ignited a trend in a comprehensive approach to performance-based design. This trend has contributed to a growth of engineering professionals dedicated to using state-of-the-art modeling tools to design buildings that deliver optimal and reliable energy performance. Their added challenge includes doing so while providing occupant thermal comfort and right sizing of HVAC equipment in a very broad North American climate, all in a cost-effective manner. The information presented in this session brings forth the author’s thorough examination, compiled results and findings/conclusions of the research conducted with the objective of providing guidance to design professionals for improving accuracy – and enabling optimization - of building energy performance.
4. Advanced Insulations that Evolved from the Knudsen Effect
Presenter: David W. Yarbrough, Ph.D., P.E., R&D Services, Inc., Cookeville, TN
The pressure dependence of gas-phase thermal conductivity that occurs as pressure decreases or regions for molecular collisions are limited is described by the “Knudsen Effect (1911)”. The high thermal resistance of advanced products such as vacuum panel insulation and nano-scale insulations is due in part to reduction in gas-phase molecular collisions due to vacuum conditions or limited space for these collisions to occur in, for example, fine powders. The Knudsen effect and resulting advanced insulation products is discussed.
5. Polyiso Continuous Insulation Wall Systems: The Perfect Wall
Presenters: Diana Fisler and Johns Manville
The exterior wall surface delivers many functions to the building structure. These including water and air resistance, thermal insulation and structural strength. This workshop discusses how each of these functions are traditionally delivered and explores how and why these functions can be combined into a high functioning “perfect” insulating wall.
Workshop 6: Energy Efficient Buildings: Economy vs. Ecology (Sponsored by the Research Institute for Thermal Insulation, FIW Munchen)
Sunday, December 8
Start time: 1:00 p.m.
End time: 4:30 p.m.
Description:
1. Return of Investment (ROI) Calculations
Presenter: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Andreas Holm
Assessments of the economic viability of various measurements, given by industry, housing sector, owners but also by science, show significant differences. Besides climatic, building physics, geometrical and economic parameters, the results are also being influenced by the particular calculation method. Depending on the calculation approach, different statements concerning the amortization of energy-saving methods will be reached. This leads to a partly fierce public discussion.
2. Aspects of Embodied Energy
Presenter: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Andreas Holm
Energy used to produce the building materials, the construction of the building and finally any disposal required are not yet included in the energy calculations. But at the same time the use of sustainable building and insulation materials is promoted by the governments. This part of the workshop sets out to compare the parameters of various external wall constructions and then also considers the extra consumption of primary energy which arises due to more stringent requirements for the energy efficiency of the building envelope.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Andreas Holm works for FIW Munchen, one of the leading research and testing institutes for thermal insulation in Germany with an international sphere of activity.
Workshop 7: Evaluating the Moisture Durability of Building Envelope Components
Sunday, December 8
Start time: 8:30 a.m.
End time: 12:00 p.m.
Description:
Presenters: Andre Desjarlais and Achilles Karagiozis
This workshop introduces attendees to hygrothermal simulations and briefly covers the parameters that impact hygrothermal simulation using software accounts for these loads.
Andre Desjarlais works for Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the Building as the Program Manager for the Building Envelope System & Urban Systems Research Program. Mr. Desjarlais has been involved in building envelope material research for over 40 years, is a leader in ABAA’s Research Committee, past Chairman of ASTM C16 and an ASTM Fellow, serves on ASHRAE’s Technical Committee Operations and was a founding Director of the RCI Foundation.
Achilles Karagiozis works for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Dr. Karagiozis manages a multidisciplinary team of approximately 150 researchers within the laboratory’s Buildings, Concentrating Solar Power, and Geothermal Technologies groups. He chairs ASHRAE Standard Project Committee 160 and is also an Energy and Environmental Building Alliance board member and serves on the Passive House Institute US Technical Committee.
Workshop 8: DOE Building Envelope Research Projects on Fenestration and Grid Interaction
Sunday, December 8
Start time: 1:00 p.m.
End time: 4:30 p.m.
Presenters: Marina Sofos, US Department of Energy; Chioke Harris, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
1. The ARPA-E SHIELD program – A Window into the Future of Novel Materials for Thermal Management
Host: Marina Sofos, U.S. Department of Energy
The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) launched the SHIELD (Single-pane, Highly Insulating Efficient Lucid Designs) program in 2016 with the goal of dramatically improving the thermal properties of single-pane windows that account for roughly 2 quads of cold weather energy losses in the U.S. The vision for SHIELD is to go beyond conventional multi-pane insulated glass unit (IGU) approaches for energy efficient windows by developing solutions that are directly installed in retrofit projects to existing frames and sashes while minimizing impact on the appearance of the window and not adding substantial weight to the pane itself.
As such, the program has focused on addressing the challenge of developing novel materials and material combinations that go beyond current state-of-the-art super-insulating solid materials to meet thermal targets comparable to double-pane solutions, while also yielding optical metrics necessary to meet transparency requirements for window applications in both commercial and residential buildings. A variety of thermal barriers have been developed and explored, including both porous (e.g., aerogel) and non-porous materials. Product solutions have consisted of both films that can adhere directly to existing window panes along with manufactured panes with similar weight and thickness to current panes and that can be mounted into existing window sashes. Partial solutions that can enable either approach have also been investigated.
This session will include an overview of the program, including key findings and takeaways at a portfolio-level. Members of the SHIELD cohort will then highlight the teams’ technologies and discuss next steps towards commercialization. Finally, industry stakeholders will discuss opportunities for next steps to transition meaningful advances towards commercially viable products into the single pane window retrofit and new/replacement window markets.
2. Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings R&D Opportunities
Presenter: Chioke Harris, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Additionally, the DOE Building Technologies Office Windows and Opaque Envelope subprogram has been exploring technology challenges and gaps as part of the development of its Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings (GEB) and R&D Opportunity (RDO) reports. BTO will present a broader view of the R&D frontiers that can target these challenges and gaps in the windows and opaque envelope technology space, based on the GEB and RDO reports.