- Author
-
Persily, A. K.
- Title
- Envelope Design Guidelines for Federal Office Buildings: Thermal Integrity and Airtightness.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Sponsor
- General Services Administration, Washington, DC
- Report
-
NISTIR 4821,
March 1993,
208 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Keywords
-
office buildings
|
thermal integrity
|
air tightness
|
design applications
- Abstract
- Office building envelopes are generally successful in meeting a range of structural, aesthetic and thermal requirements. However, poor thermal envelope performance does occur due to the existence of defects in the envelope insulation, air barrier and vapor retarder systems. These defects result from designs that do not adequately account for heat, air and moisture transmission, with many being associated with inappropriate or inadequate detailing of the connections of envelope components. Other defects result from designs that appear adequate but can not be constructed in the field or will not maintain adequate performance over time. Despite the existence of these thermal envelope performance problems, information is available to design and construct envelopes that do perform well. In order to bridge the gap between available knowlege and current practice, NIST has developed thermal envelope design guidelines for federal office buildings for the General Services Administration. The goal of this project is to transfer the knowledge on thermal envelope design and performance from the building research, design and construction communities into a form that will be used by building design professionals. These guidelines are organized by envelope construction system and contain practical information on the avoidance of thermal performance problems such as thermal bridging, insulation system defects, moisture migration, and envelope air leakage.