Thermal Resilience Design Guide
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Thermal Resilience Design Guide D AN UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO JOHN H. DANIELS FACULTY OF IELS ARCHITECTURE, LANDSCAPE, AND DESIGN U Thermal Resilience Design Guide OF Sponsored by ROCKWOOL North America 2019. T II Acknowledgments This technical guide has been made possible through numerous earlier Disclaimer efforts and contributions by the building science community. Without this The information presented in this publication is intended to provide guidance knowledge, the challenges of thermal resilience could not be effectively to knowledgeable industry professionals qualified in the design of new engaged. ROCKWOOL North America wishes to acknowledge the individuals and retrofit buildings. It remains the sole responsibility of the designers, and organizations that have directly or indirectly contributed to the constructors and authorities having jurisdiction that all thermal resilience development of this publication: measures deployed in professional practice adhere to sound building science principles. These guidelines are not a substitute for prudent professional Principal Author practice, due diligence and compliance with applicable codes and standards. Dr. Ted Kesik, P.Eng., Professor of Building Science, University of Toronto While care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of information presented Co-Author herein, this publication is intended solely as a document of building science Dr. Liam O’Brien, Associate Professor, Architectural Conservation and guidance to enhance the thermal resilience of buildings. This publication Sustainability, Carleton University should not be relied upon as a substitute for architectural, engineering, or retrofit advice by qualified practitioners. ROCKWOOL, the authors, contributors Building Energy Modeling and referenced sources assume no responsibility for consequential loss, Dr. Aylin Ozkan, Research Associate, University of Toronto errors or omissions resulting from the information contained herein. The views expressed in this guide are those of the authors and do not necessarily Graphic Design represent the views or policies of ROCKWOOL North America. Amanda Chong Special acknowledgement to Antoine Habellion, Alejandra Nieto and Vincent Chui of the ROCKWOOL Building Science Support group in Milton, Ontario, Canada for their technical review of this publication D AN UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO JOHN H. DANIELS FACULTY OF IELS ARCHITECTURE, LANDSCAPE, AND DESIGN U Thermal Resilience Design Guide OF Sponsored by ROCKWOOL North America 2019. T III Table of Contents About This Guide iv How to Use This Guide. iv What is Thermal Resilience? 1 Thermal Autonomy 2 Passive Survivability/Habitability 3 Fire Resistance 4 The Role of Passive Versus Active Systems 6 Passive Strategies for Enhancing Thermal Resilience.8 Thermal Control 10 Fenestration and Window-to-Wall Ratio 22 Shading Devices 27 Natural Ventilation 30 Thermal Mass 37 Fire Resistance 40 Thermal Resilience Modeling 45 Thermal Resilience Design Methodology 46 Thermal Resilience Modeling Conventions 50 Minimum Effective Thermal Resistance and Airtightness Levels 52 Visualizing Thermal Resilience 61 Beyond Thermal Resilience 66 Thermal Resilience Resources. 67 Appendix A - Guide for Energy Modelling 68 D Appendix B - Active Systems Considerations for Enhanced Thermal AN Resilience 79 UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO JOHN H. DANIELS FACULTY OF IELS ARCHITECTURE, LANDSCAPE, AND DESIGN U Thermal Resilience Design Guide OF Sponsored by ROCKWOOL North America 2019. T THERMAL RESILIENCE DESIGN GUIDE IV About This Guide How To Use This Guide This design guide is aimed at building industry At its most basic level, thermal resilience design By exploring the strategies and measures highlighted professionals who wish to enhance the thermal involves risk management and it is critical to in this guide, it is intended that building professionals resilience of buildings. appreciate that durability is a prerequisite for can efficiently develop effective design approaches resilience in buildings. at the early stages of design that may then be further Aging energy infrastructure and extreme weather analyzed and refined such that a comprehensive, events due to climate change can lead to extended Thermal resilience measures should reasonably integrated solution for thermal resilience may power outages that cause buildings to be much persist over the service life of the building, and as be achieved. It is important to recognize that the too cold or hot to inhabit. Intelligent enclosure the most effective measures are related to the design diversity of building types, climate zones and design can take advantage of passive measures of the enclosure, it is essential that durability is not peculiar site conditions make it virtually impossible to futureproof buildings. This guide contains compromised. to advance prescriptive solutions, hence building information that is useful to architects, engineers, After durability criteria have been addressed, performance simulation is essential to informing energy modellers, facility managers and building determine if the risk exposure of your building, thermal resilience design. Since thermal resilience owners. proposed or existing, is related to winter or summer is a relatively new performance requirement for The scope of this guide focuses on North America thermal resilience challenges, or both. sustainable buildings, and extreme weather events and its associated climate zones where both The minimum recommended enclosure thermal that coincide with extended power outages are space heating and cooling are required to provide resistance charts can be used to determine a not frequent, it will take time to correlate predicted inhabitants with thermal comfort. It is important to reasonable baseline for each of the enclosure versus actual behaviour in real buildings, and then recognize that the information presented in this components (roofs, walls, windows, etc.) and these to gain confidence in the effectiveness of thermal guide should be viewed as the preliminary basis for apply to both winter and summer conditions. resilience strategies and measures. Until such time more comprehensive analysis and design. Additional Additional strategies are specific to hot and cold as we gain the ability to reliably predict thermal references are provided so that users of this guide weather situations and the challenge is to integrate resilience in practice, a prudent factor of safety gain access to more extensive information about these within the enclosure design. (ignorance) is warranted going forward. thermal resilience design in buildings. Active thermal resilience measures are viewed as a supplementary or back up means of maintaining thermal comfort and habitability that should not be relied upon to achieve the minimum acceptable level of thermal resilience. This minimum acceptable level of perfomance should be robust passive systems that remain serviceable over the life of the building. THERMAL RESILIENCE DESIGN GUIDE 1 What Is Thermal Resilience? Thermal resilience involves many aspects of building design and performance related to how the building-as-a-system, including its constituent materials, components and assemblies, manages various forms of thermal stress. There are both passive and active system measures The key aspects of thermal resilience outlined in this design guide are: for managing thermal stresses that may be due to extremely hot or cold outdoor temperatures, or extreme heat exposure to fire. Thermal Passive Fire Thermal resilience is an important attribute for 1 Autonomy 2 Habitability 3 Resistance buildings because climate change is causing an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events. When these extreme weather events result in extended power outages that coincide with prolonged heat and cold spells, buildings are challenged to safely shelter their inhabitants and These three key aspects of thermal resilience are avoid serious damage or accelerated deterioration. explained in the sections that follow. THERMAL RESILIENCE DESIGN GUIDE 2 Thermal Autonomy The fraction of time that a building maintains comfortable indoor conditions without inputs from active systems is termed thermal autonomy. The metric Thermal autonomy is a measure of the fraction of time a building for thermal autonomy is based on comfort conditions defined as a range of can passively maintain comfort conditions without active system operative indoor temperatures between 18°C and 25°C (64°F and 77°F). energy inputs. Space Cooling Required The higher the thermal autonomy, the more the passive enclosure system CODE contributes to managing acceptable indoor conditions, and the less reliance HIGH PERFORMANCE Peak Cooling Load on active system inputs to achieve thermal comfort. Recent research indicates Red area represents the greater the thermal autonomy, the smaller the peak and annual energy p p annual space heating 25 C (77 F) No space heating demands for active space heating and cooling. or cooling Blue area energy demand 18pC (65pF) required. represents annual space The contributions that thermal autonomy makes to thermal resilience are cooling energy manifold. First, the useful life of active system equipment (HVAC) is extended to demand. Peak Heating Load provide service over a longer period of time, thus enhancing its reliability and durability. Second, energy sources supplying the active systems are conserved Space Heating and for remote facilities that store energy on site (wood, propane, oil, etc.) JUL JAN JUN FEB SEP APR MAY