Keeping your windows closed tightens your home's envelope, retaining heat indoors and lowering your winter energy bill.īut what if there are holes in your home's envelope - small, mostly invisible holes that you can't close as easily as a window? Unfortunately, leaky home envelopes are very much the norm. Doing so would cause lots of heat to escape, forcing your furnace to work harder. When it's freezing outside, you probably don't open your living room windows. Tightening your home's building envelope improves energy efficiency. It should also include a controlled, deliberate method for bringing in fresh air from the outside. The point is that it's useful to think of your living space in much the same way: an envelope that functions best when it's closed tightly. But when there's a hole in the envelope, pollution can get inside, not to mention lots of hot or cold air, wind, and precipitation. You're used to thinking of your car as a closed envelope, which is why you weren't worried about the dust. Pretty soon you're coughing and sneezing and trying to rub the dirt out of your eyes.
#Building envelope diagram cracked#
You won't have to breathe in any of that nasty dust.Įxcept you forgot that your back windows were cracked open. You've got no choice but to drive straight through it, but you're not worried. You see a large cloud of dust on the horizon. Imagine you're driving your car near a construction site on a windy day. This diagram from Energy Star shows the anatomy of a home envelope: To start thinking of your home in this way, it's important to understand the concept of the "building envelope."Ī building's envelope is defined as the continuous thermal and pressure barrier that surrounds the structure. However, there's another way to think about your home - not just as a collection of systems but as single system in which different components work in tandem to produce a clean, efficient, and comfortable living experience. Your electricity, plumbing, and HVAC equipment represent separate systems that "power" different aspects of your home. Many people think of their homes as a collection of different systems, and they're absolutely correct.
0 kommentar(er)
