Early Stage Building Science

Buildings are a substantial energy consumer; they use approximately 30% of all energy in Canada and 40% of all energy in the US. Buildings are also a large greenhouse gas emitter, responsible for 25% of GHGs in Canada and 40% of GHGs in the US. The push to improve the performance of new buildings is more important than ever, yet often their design and construction do not employ the methodologies needed to meaningfully achieve this goal. The key challenge stems from selecting building systems independently from one another, without thorough analysis and optimization to understand their implications on the overall energy and sustainability performance targets of the project. This can result in missed opportunities for true system integration, exploration of alternatives, and cost savings. This presentation will look at how an approach to Early-Stage Building Science explicitly considers the interaction between the enclosure and mechanical systems to optimize thermal performance, carbon and cost while satisfying the architectural intent and owner’s requirements.

This webinar will be of interest to owners, developers, architects, and other professionals who are designing, building, or considering high-performance approaches.

You’ll Learn About:

1. The current limitations of the traditional approach to selecting building systems for a project

2. How to align project milestones to best support the integrated approach and to benchmark performance iteratively

3. Key design considerations that have a direct impact on the energy performance of the mechanical systems and the building enclosure systems

4. Why multiple variables and combinations must be considered when optimizing design to meet project and sustainability goals on budget