Evaluating and Expanding Research in Highly Insulated Walls

In the September 2013 issue of Energy Design Update, Lois Arena, Senior Building Systems Engineer, Steven Winter Associates Inc (SWA), detailed SWA's work to verify the field performance of highly insulated walls. This work is under funding from the US Department of Energy's Building America program. The wall assembly monitored and analyzed in this study was an R-40, double-stud, dense-packed cellulose assembly in Climate Zone 5A. Two test bays were identified in the newly constructed home, one on the North and one on the South facades. A parametric study indicated that the North wall may have experienced moisture intrusion from wind-driven rain. Launched at the end of 2013 in cooperation with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, SWA is now in a year-long process to monitor 2 different high R-value wall assemblies in Ithaca, NY. The goals of the new SWA study at Ithaca reach beyond searching out condensation potential, mold growth, and thresholds for decay in these types of wall assemblies to validating the accuracy of WUFI in non-standard wall types.