Moisture
Risk and Heat Loss Analysis for Wall Assemblies and Junctions
Thursday, Oct 10 – Friday, Oct 11, 2019
Minneapolis
Testimonials from previous
course participants:
-
"This course was a great intro to WUFI.”
-
"Just the right level of detail and building
science. Nice job!"
-
"I appreciated the building science primer followed
by exercises format."
-
"This was a lot of fun. I feel ready to calc
some walls when the architects ask."
Session description (14 hours of instruction over 2
days)
A higher standard of moisture and
thermal analysis is often required for today’s advanced enclosures. Thermal bridges, air leakage, and moisture
flow can have larger impacts and pose greater risks for high performance enclosures,
whether they’re high performance commercial assemblies designed to comply with
Minnesota’s B3 Guidelines, or super-insulated enclosures for Passive
House-certified buildings. New methods
of qualitative analysis are available to help architects and engineers
confidently design and specify these advanced enclosures.
In this 2-day training course,
participants will learn in-depth techniques to analyze and evaluate their wall
assemblies and details for moisture risk and thermal bridging. Participants will learn to use a variety of
current software tools including the hygrothermal simulation WUFI Pro, Glaser,
and condensation point calculators. New
for the training this year will be in-depth instruction on how to evaluate
details and junctions using the 2-dimensional heat flow simulation tool Flixo
Energy Plus, which is a markedly improved and more user-friendly version of the
program THERM.
The workshop will begin with a
review of the building science principles of moisture and heat flow in
above-grade wall assemblies and discuss why thoughtful design and analysis
becomes increasingly important for higher performance enclosures. Most of the class time will be devoted to
learning how to use and evaluate results from these tools, with a focus on WUFI
and Glaser tools the first day, and thermal bridge and condensation analysis
using Flixo the second day. Attendees
will have the opportunity to model a mix of conventional commercial and high
performance wall assemblies. Some prior
experience with these topics is recommended.
First time users/purchasers of
Flixo are eligible to register for a 1-yr Flixo Energy Plus license & USB
dongle ($444 value) for a reduced price of $190. Session limited to first 20 registered.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion, each participant
will:
·
Understand
the new requirements for achieving compliance with B3 Moisture and Water Control
Guidelines.
·
Identify
the major wetting and drying pathways for above grade walls, and define
moisture safety.
·
Identify
the four main control layers and describe the important features of each.
·
Describe
the major types of moisture risk analysis and the appropriate uses and
drawbacks of each type.
·
Understand
how to perform a static moisture risk assessment using the Glaser calculator
tool developed for the B3 Program.
·
Assess the
results from a Glaser moisture risk analysis and use those results to design
improvements to wall assemblies.
·
Understand
how to perform a basic dynamic moisture risk assessment using WUFI.
·
Assess the
results from a WUFI analysis and use those results to design improvements to
wall assemblies.
·
Understand
the major types and impacts of thermal bridges in a high performance enclosure.
·
Understand
how to perform a condensation risk analysis at assembly junctions or details
using 2-dimensional heat flow software.
·
Understand
how to calculate an equivalent R-value for a non-homogenous wall assembly using
Flixo.
·
Understand
how to calculate the additional heat loss from linear thermal bridges at
assembly junctions or details using a psi value.
Session Requirements: All participants should arrive
with a laptop loaded with WUFI Light v6.3 (free, limited to 4 weeks) and Flixo
Energy Plus. Participants can choose to
either take advantage of the discounted full version of Flixo Energy Plus
(rolled into the registration cost) or a free demo version of Flixo Energy Plus
(version 8) is available for download (30 day limited). The Flixo demo works on
PCs with Windows installed or Macs with Windows installed (via Bootcamp, not
other Virtual Machines). The paid version of Flixo supports virtual machines on
both Windows and Mac.
Instructors: Rolf Jacobson, Center for Sustainable Building
Research and Chris Petit, CertiPHIers Cooperative
Date: October 10th and 11th, 8:30am
– 4:30pm
Location: 225 Rapson Hall. 89 Church Street SE, Minneapolis,
MN 55455
AIA LUs: pending approval
Intended Audience: Architects, engineers, energy modelers, Passive
House consultants, designers and other building professionals who want to build
on their skills of moisture risk analysis and thermal bridge modeling.
Registration questions: Chris Petit chris@certiphiers.com
Course questions/info: Rolf Jacobson jaco0630@umn.edu
Cancellation Policy: Registrations cancelled more than
three weeks from the scheduled course date will be refunded 100% of the course
fee. Cancellations between one and three weeks before the scheduled course date
will be refunded 50% of the course fee. Cancellations within a week of the
scheduled course date will not be refunded.
Instructor Bios
Rolf Jacobson
Rolf Jacobson is a Research Fellow and Certified
Passive House Consultant (CPHC) at the Center for Sustainable Building Research
(CSBR). Through the Fulbright program,
Rolf conducted research in Norway on the building science of Passive House
envelopes optimized for cold climates.
While there, he used energy and moisture modeling tools such as WUFI and
THERM to investigate and evaluate a wide range of residential building
assemblies. More recently, Rolf has
helped the NorthernSTAR Building America team conduct research on a variety of
topics such as an in-situ study of residential ground source heat pumps and
innovative panelized construction systems.
His work at the CSBR is primarily focused on high performance affordable
housing and Minnesota’s Sustainable Building B3 Guidelines.
Chris Petit
Chris is a Certified Passive House Designer,
Tradesperson & Trainer with Regenerative Design LLC and a PHI
Certifier with CertiPHIers Cooperative. He has provided design
support and energy modeling services since 2008. Through CertiPHIers, Chris has
certified Passive House projects in the US and Canada. In addition to his
work with CertiPHIers, Chris teaches sustainable design, energy modeling, and
renewable energy. He holds a MS in Architecture from the University of
Minnesota.