[Greenbuilding] Year-round thermal comfort & insulation

[Norbert Senf]

Hi Reuben:

Yesterday, the interior temperature peaked at around 78F by the time it was
around 7-8 pm and time to open the windows again. It only got down to 70F
last night, and the walls (the wall that I measured yesterday, which is on
the first floor) are at 74F. Right now (7:30 am) it is still 70F outside,
so we'll run the upstairs window fan for another hour or so. The second
floor walls run about 2F warmer. The house is not super-insulated. 4" of
(continuous) SM foam (R20) on the outside, and R-20 in the roof.

On Mon, Jul 16, 2018 at 2:21 PM, Reuben Deumling <9watts at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> 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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-- 
Norbert Senf
Masonry Stove Builders
25 Brouse Road, RR 5
Shawville Québec J0X 2Y0
819.647.5092
www.heatkit.com
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