Chantal Pitcher - Applevalleyscoop.com

42 APPLE VALLEY SCOOP MAY 2012 • Listen to Scoop Radio on www.applevalleyscoop.com
Thermal Bridging
and Thermal
Breaks
Caleb Howden
Denim Homes Inc.
WINNER
Official Winner
of the
Canadian Home Builder’s
National SAM Building Award
for
Green Home 2011
Come check out our new Showroom
5494 Prospect Road, Unit B, Kentville
• Home Plans
• Energy Efficient Building Information
• Custom Home Design
Did you know that there is 8% more heat
lost thorough the walls of your home than
your windows and 39% more heat lost
through your ceiling than your walls. Heat loss
through walls is the greatest factor of energy
loss in residential buildings
To ensure that you are not creating
unnecessary heat loss in the home, you must
ensure that your building envelope does not
have any (or very little) thermal bridging. A
thermal bridge is created when a material that
is a poor insulator, such as a wall stud, allows
heat to flow through and creates a “bridge”.
Insulation around a bridge does little to
prevent heat loss due to thermal bridging; the
thermal bridging itself must be eliminated.
This is done by creating a thermal break
by using an insulation material or building
system to prevent both the wall studs and the
concrete floors from being thermal bridges.
for example; A thermal break can be a layer
of insulation surrounding the concrete slab
perimeter, both on the sides and underneath.
The conventional 2x6” wall has a full 2x6”
stud from the interior to the exterior. A 2x6
wall stud has a R-6 insulation value (poor)
and the insulation between them has a R-20
value (better). Heat travels through the stud
to the exterior of the home, creating high
heat loss from the thermal bridge. There are
many methods to building exterior walls that
can eliminate or reduce this thermal bridging
effect. I believe the most effective, both for cost
and energy efficiency, is a double staggered
studded wall as mentioned in our February
edition of the Apple Valley Scoop. The 2x4”
staggered studs sit on a 2x8” bottom plate,
spaced 16” apart on center. This wall type can
be insulated many different ways, one of the
best ways is, Wet blown cellulose insulation
blown into the wall cavity completely filling
and forming to the space. The staggered studs
and insulation together act as a thermal break
and eliminates thermal bridging heat loss.
Stay tuned for next month, when we outline
the importance of “air tightness”.
This is the “Proper Building Envelope” series.
Caleb
denimhomes.com
681-3776 (VALLEY)