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Steel Frame Heatloss

Brad White_139
Brad White_139 Member Posts: 6
in THE MAIN WALL
ASHRAE has done reasearch which is now embodied in our State Energy Code (MA) but is pretty universally accepted: Whatever you think your basic R-value is for a given wall, cut it in half... So what you would hope would be an R-14 wall assembly will be R-7.

Continuous insulation spanning all metal stud members will do wonders here.... but will only add it's value to the derated wall. In other words, R-3 rigid board will get your wall back up to R-10.

I cannot say how a blower door test would work out, but in commercial applications (on which my experience is based) air barriers are stressed; taping and sealing are critical. The envelopes perform very well, even in high rises with those pressure gradients, stack effect, etc.

Comments

  • Plumdog_2
    Plumdog_2 Member Posts: 873
    Steel Frame Heatloss

    Anyone experienced in the realtime heatloss that could be expected with steel framed dwellings? I'm somewhat concerned about infiltration and bridging. If any pros have done blower door tests on these things what did the results show? They look like Swiss Cheese from the inside on a sunny day.
  • Weezbo
    Weezbo Member Posts: 6,232
    i am not :) however,...

    many years ago in the 70's there were a Group of rivet ...sorry couldnt resist...metal framed building being pounded in in Washington in Colville near the Canadian border...maybe Paul Polletes has some direct experience with them...
  • hr
    hr Member Posts: 6,106
    thermal breaks

    are critical. I remember the early steel framed homes we worked on. Come winter time you could see the stripes and feel the cold steel studs. An insulation break is now used.

    I believs you can build this wall in Siggys new Heat Load Pro program. Not sure about the steel studs but you can add that foam layer to see the loss difference.

    hot rod

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