Building Profiles: Retrofits

Kohta Ueno is a Principal of Building Science Corporation and has an undergraduate degree in Material Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Masters of Applied Science from the University of Waterloo. Over the past few years issues, including persistent summertime humidity, comfort complaints, sweating ductwork, and mold are increasing in recently constructed multifamily units. Problems are often due to a “perfect storm” of factors: from air conditioning sizing vs.

Andy Padian is a recognized expert in buildings and building science despite receiving a BA from Syracuse University in Energy and Environmental Policy. He joins a list of notable Syracuse alumni including President Joe Biden and Jim Brown who was the greatest lacrosse player of all time. Andy is an independent consultant, founder and President of PadianNYC Consulting. His presentation deals with how “the next piece of technology” that is intended to solve building problems often results in a cascade of problems not fully known at the time of the technology introduction.

Betsy Pettit, is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and received her undergraduate degree in Architecture from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio and her master’s degree in Architecture from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC. She is a pioneer in net zero construction and will share her experiences and insights in net zero new construction projects and retrofit projects. Things are both easy and obvious and then they are not.

Marc Rosenbaum, P.E., received a BS and MS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is an engineer who has pushed the frontiers of high performance buildings. He is the Founder and Principal of Energysmiths and built his first superinsulated house in 1978. To say he is a legend is an understatement. His presentation points out that much of what we know about how buildings perform comes from measuring and monitoring….and the results are not always obvious.

Bill is back by popular demand. William Bahnfleth is a Professor of Architectural Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, is a Past President of ASHRAE and chaired the ASHRAE Epidemic Task Force. He now chairs both the ASHRAE Environmental Health Committee and the committee developing ASHRAE’s first standard for the control of infectious aerosols. Bill will give an overview of the standard and will also make a few remarks on the social/political context in which it was developed. To use a pun that I can’t resist…"it is a breath of fresh air from a distinguished group….

It is all about the connections…industry trends….we have seen them before…manufactured housing was supposed to win the game….the problem is having to move the box from the factory to the site…not cheap…not easy…  The boxes coming together is not easy….not efficient because you double up the surfaces…  How about panels?  We love panels…you don’t ship air.  How about robotics?  You really think we can replace judgement and experience with a robot?

Pretty easy…just connect the water control layer of the roof, wall and foundation to each other…the air control layer of the roof, wall and foundation to each other…vapor control layer of the roof, wall and foundations to each other…and the thermal control layer of the roof, wall and foundations to each other.  Then it gets complicated…punched openings like windows and doors…  It gets worse…decks...

Can it be so easy that all we have to do to make the perfect wall more perfect is leave out the vapor control layer and allow the all to dry in both directions? Ah man, why do you ask these types of questions? Go irritate someone else. The answer is yes. Sorta. Kinda. But not always.

So where are we after a half century? We went from the interior to the exterior with air barriers. And we went from combining the vapor barrier with the air barrier on the inside to combining the water control layer with the air barrier on the outside. We went from films on the inside to sheet goods on the inside. Then we went from films on the outside to sheet goods on the outside. We went from caulking and the black death on the inside to tapes and fluid applied joint systems on the outside. We are not done of course. But we are well on the way.