Woods and walls

One of the interesting aspects of the human mind is how it can draw parallels between seemingly unrelated subjects. It happened to me this morning while reading a blog post about biomass and its place in our energy future.
A concern raised by one poster, and a concern I share, is the potential over harvesting of our wood resources by companies more concerned about supplying their boilers than sustaining the resource. 
My short take on this is that the answer is to apply strict management to the resource or leave it alone.The leave it alone approach, no harvesting at all, is unrealistic. Wood is too useful a resource to suddenly decide that we can forgo its use altogether. If we are going to harvest wood we need to apply resource management techniques that maximize yield while preserving the forest and all the environmental benefits it supplies.
A little management, maximizing yield only, leaves us with the situation with large clear cuts and the associated problems of air, soil and water quality problems. Strong management using sustainable harvesting techniques and using plans that address the specific site can result in a forest that can sustain wildlife, soil, water and air. So if we are going to take and use the resource we need to invest our time and energy to gt the details right.
I can apply that same management logic to the exterior walls in a building. For years we got away with minimal management of air and water movement in our outside walls. All we had to do was keep most of the water out and the uninsulated un-air-sealed walls survived just fine. The water that got in, and it did, dried quickly enough because there was enough energy flowing through the walls to evaporate and disperse the water.
Then we started asking these walls to do more. To hide the wires and pipes our increasingly technology based lives demanded. And we added insulation to keep us warmer and we asked for fewer drafts so we could wear light clothing in the winter. But we didn't do much to improve our management of the water. It still got into the walls, but now the energy flows available were greatly reduced so it stayed there longer.
Water is the great giver of life. All life forms that we know about need it. Unfortunately the life forms that tend to grow in warm dark damp places like the inside of walls are know by names like mold and rot.
A quick aside if I may, there is no such thing as dry rot. You just didn't see it when it was wet.
Back to topic: If we are going to continue to extract all these services from our walls we need to more vigorously manage the water. Exterior drainage planes and properly installed windows and doors on the outside are a good start. Exterior insulation to control condensation on the inside of the wall is a great idea too.
Inside the walls we need to use materials that reduce air movement and are moisture tolerant. We need to make sure our interior wall surfaces minimize air movement yet still allow for drying (If we are going with the drainage plane/exterior insulation). Pay attention to ventilation to control humidity and be vigilant about controlling bulk water. If we do these things we can have walls that provide the services we want and that will last a long time.
So whether it's forests or walls, if we want them to serve us we need to be willing to devote the effort to manage and maintain them. It's only fair.

Dot Edie Ewe

I harp on this subject constantly so I thought it rated a blog post. The most important thing we deliver to our customers and clients is education.
We should be delivering the specific tasks we are asked for, whether analysis of building flaws, recommendations for new equipment or building shell improvements. That is what we were hired to do. But unless we leave them with a broader understanding of the hows and whys have we accomplished anything?
There are and always will be clients who want only specific answers to specific questions. I guess they are good for business because they will pay you over and over to answer the same questions on different projects. I have a hard time enjoying that kind of work, there is very little challenge.
Answering the same question for different clients can be interesting because it is an opportunity to teach the answer, not just supply it. The client may not need you to answer that same question anymore but when other questions need answering your name should come up.
That is an opportunity for you to learn something else to educate on. And to then create a more interesting client who will ask more interesting questions which will require you to learn something... It's almost like perpetual motion. Hmm, I wonder if I can attach a drive shaft to that.
Ultimately a client who you have educated is a client who will respect you. It is also a client who will advertise for you, which is not a bad thing either.

More on Infrared

In my latest newsletter (check my website for newsletter archives) I talked a bit about interpreting infrared images. It got me thinking about the state of the technology and where it fits into building science.
When I took my course for my level 1 thermographer certification  I was impressed by the technical knowledge and skill of the instructors on all things IR. But in the section where they talked about building investigations there were a few things they said that made me realize that they were a bit weak in some building science details.
The current state of IR usage in buildings is still on the cusp as to who is using it. For years it was like the early days of computers. The tasks were performed by computer people, not people who were the experts in the task. As desk top computers proliferated and became increasingly easy to use the focus shifted back to having task experts use computers to do the job. It became easier to teach the use of the computer than to teach the task to a computer expert.
My only concern is that there are people who are learning building science only through use of infrared technology. I hope that they will come to understand that all they are seeing with the IR are clues, not facts. They still need to have a good solid understanding of what can be happening to figure out what is happening.
As always, other voices are welcome.

Avoiding the "savings" trap

The main reason people give for not pursuing building energy improvements is "poor payback". Unfortunately those of us who have been using cost savings as the sole or primary justification for recommending measures are directly to blame for this. We have set up the expectation that all energy saving improvements will "pay for themselves in just a couple of years".

When this payback period stretches beyond 2 - 3 years businesses tend to lose interest. Homeowners pass if paybacks exceed 5 years, or less if they anticipate moving. So what can we do? How about ignoring payback altogether?

Let's ask this, are buildings created with a specific payback period in mind? Usually that answer is no. Buildings are built to serve a function or set of functions that range from creating shelter from the elements to massaging the owners ego. Are there reasons within that range that we can bring in to the retrofit proposition that can trump payback? I think the answer is yes, the challenge is shifting the conversation.

Comfort is a reliable sales point. Most of my residential work is still focused on comfort issues. How do we bring in other issues such as indoor air quality and building durability? Obviously if there are glaring defects in those areas owners will be on board. But how do we bring those in proactively?

Anybody willing to chime in? I presume that since this is a new venture it will take a bit to get going, but be brave and jump in. I hope we can share thoughts. and solutions.

Let's get started

I am experimenting with a blog as a supplement to my newsletter. I expect that I will be posting a few times a month, give or take.

My hope is that this will be a little more interactive, allowing my readers to reply to me and to each other.

Let's have some fun and share a little knowledge. Knowledge is the one true all purpose tool.