[Greenbuilding] Year-round thermal comfort & insulation

[Reuben Deumling]

On Monday, July 16, 2018, Norbert Senf <norbert.senf at gmail.com> wrote:

> We're in the same climate as John Salmen's, hot summers cold winters. The
> main part of our 2 storey house is 6" hollow core concrete blocks w. 4" of
> extruded foam on the outside, w. plaster exterior finish. The house has a
> time constant of about 1 day -- if we go away in the winter and let it cool
> down, it takes about a day to heat it back up. By the same token, it takes
> about a day to cool down with no heat input. Night time cooling works great
> here, even in this weather. We have big deciduous tree to the south for
> summer shade, and use a fan in an upstairs window to boost the airflow at
> night to discharge the heat from the mass. Right now at 2 pm it is 91F
> (33C) outside and 75.5F (24C) inside.
>
> Thank you all for your stories and experiences with different wall
designs. Norbert, I'm curious to hear a bit more about the interior
temperature trajectory over the course of the evening. Yesterday our
exterior temperature peaked at 90F around 5pm, and the downstairs interior
temperature peaked somewhat later at 84F (uncomfortably hot in my view, but
it doesn't happen on more than a handful of days, typically). I opened all
the windows by 8pm and this morning (5am) the interior temps were back down
to 70F, outside ~65F.

>
> On Mon, Jul 16, 2018 at 8:51 AM, Stephen Collette <
> stephen at yourhealthyhouse.ca> wrote:
>
>> Hello Reuben and all,
>>
>> I wanted to relate a personal story about  thermal mass and insulation to
>> see if it resonates. I live in Ontario, so cold winters, hot summers. I
>> live in a 100 year old house that has rough cut 2x4 hollow walls. Well, it
>> was designed to be hollow walls. Living near a cement factory (at the time)
>> our little village has the unique detailing of filling the hollow wall
>> cavities with dry mix concrete (stones and cement), then lath and plaster
>> over the 1x12 planking. The concept was that the walls would suck the
>> moisture out of the plaster, and harden up, which they did in mine and
>> numerous homes around here. So I literally have a ton (or 4) of thermal
>> mass in my story and a half. It over the years has worked pretty well
>> managing both heat and cold, however we found that any extended periods of
>> either will result in the mass getting stupid hot or stupid cold and
>> radiating heat into the house non stop, or sucking every kiloWatt out of it
>> in winter. We have since done a major renovation and addition to the house
>> adding 6 inches of Roxul (now Rockwool) comfortboard rigid board to the
>> outside from the footings to the roof (it’s basically their old drainboard
>> with probably John S’s stamp on it saying you can put it on walls)(haha).
>> The master suite addition has 2x6 stud walls with Roxul batts in it and
>> same outsulation. The overall consensus is that the older part performs
>> better anecdotally. Too many variables to be accurate, but the thermal mass
>> stays consistently stable throughout the year now and our heating bills
>> have dropped significantly.
>>
>> Summary. Thermal mass on the inside with outsulation is a good idea in my
>> climate. Oh yeah, and make it airtight too!
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Stephen
>>
>> Stephen Collette
>> BBEC, BBNC, LEED AP, CAHP, BSSO
>> Principal
>> *Your Healthy House*
>> Indoor Environmental Testing & Building Consulting
>> http://www.yourhealthyhouse.ca
>> stephen at yourhealthyhouse.ca
>> 705.652.5159
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jul 15, 2018, at 2:00 PM, greenbuilding-request at lists.bi
>> oenergylists.org wrote:
>>
>> Reuben says: "Thermal mass (such as a brick or stone wall) would I
>> think do a much better job producing comfortably cool summer evenings,
>> but would not accomplish much in the winter"
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Norbert Senf
> Masonry Stove Builders
> 25 Brouse Road, RR 5
> Shawville Québec J0X 2Y0
> 819.647.5092
> www.heatkit.com
>
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