Paper Example on Passive House with Thermal Bridging

Introduction

Passive housing is a voluntary standard for efficiency in buildings with an aim of reducing the building's ecological footprint. This technology have been embraced in most processes as it saves energy. Community Housing Corporation CHC, is the largest social housing provider in Windsor and Essex County and the fourth largest in Ontario. It provides homes to about 12,000 parents, seniors, children, singles and people with special needs. Its main aim is to provide well maintained, decent and affordable community housing in a fair and deserving way. CHC works as an independent local housing corporation headed by board of directors. Renovation and maintenance services on these houses are required from time to time.

CHC's objectives is to contribute to the development and support of strong inclusive communities of Windsor city and Essex County, improve quality, supporting the society through the provision of affordable and quality housing. They are also looking forward to building new passive buildings which will allow for heating and cooling and this will save energy up to 90% compared to the normal buildings. It requires less energy for space heating and cooling. Apart from residential, passive technology by CHC is also used in supermarkets, schools and office buildings among others. Passive buildings are highly praised for their high level of comfort. They tend to use energy sources inside such as a body or the solar heat for heating process. They are also fitted with appropriate windows, well insulated walls, roofs and floor to keep heat, especially during the winter season. It is also fitted with a proper ventilation system which will ensure free supply and flow of fresh air.

CHC portfolio include low rise apartments, high-rise apartments, homes, detached homes row housing and towns. It is ranked as public housing, nonprofit seniors and nonprofit family under six district. They continue to serve their resident's expectations through community partnership, private and public sectors, tenant involvement and corporate commitment

The organization contains a separate district management system with strong centralized support which was put into practice in 2007. It includes a tenant's service mandate, daily operations permanent employees, finance, assets management, corporate service and the CEO's office. All these departments work hard in order to fulfill the CHC residents and stakeholders' expectations. Its Top level management include the board of directors, CEO's who are mainly engineers by profession. Health and safety manager, Executive administrative, and assistant Birgual customer service clerk.

Finance department, has total of 11 staff members who are headed by the chief financial officer. This department governs the accounting manager, placeholder IT management position actual name (TBD) and the manager financial planning & analysis. Clearly, the financial analyst, accounts payable clerks, and the accounts receivable clerk work under the accounting manager. Whereas, the system administrator works under the IT management position. Senior financial analyst works under the manager financial planning thus a total of 11 workers. Asset management consists of 10 staff headed by the director of asset management department who is assisted by the asset management assistant, senior manager in Asset management assisted by the Purchasing Administrator. The manager of Risk and Preventive Maintenance together with Capital projects manager work hand in hand with the preventative Maintenance. Property management which has a total number of 48 staff is headed by the chief operating officer, and is assisted by two officials, the health and safety manager and the senior manager operations. The operations administration clerk works under the Senior Manager operations. Maintenance and repair has majority of workers and students. Corporate service department have a total of 9 staffs, headed by the director of corporate services department who is assisted by human resources manager, the manager of public affairs, and five of community relations workers. The payroll clerks work under the human resources manager and the CHR which has a total of 4 staffs, the central housing registry manager and three application clerks. The role of this department is being responsible for managing capital projects in aspects related to the structural, electrical and mechanical fields. It is also responsible for risks management and preventive maintenance

The roles and responsibilities of the students since they are part of the asset management team, and might be involved at any stage of the project includes, assisting the assigned project manager preparing documents such as RFEI, RFI, RFP and RFPQ, organizing the project mandatory site meetings, communicating with the project manager, district managers, consultant vendors, CHC service providers and contractors. Monitoring the construction progress, preparing and distributing 24 hour tenants notice as required by project as well as preparation of site visit. Further, the students also monitor and update the project manager on the contractors' work and the construction progress. Quality inspection is also the students' job and this is done when the project is finished so as to close the tender.

Cost effectiveness in constructing a passive building along Meadowbrook allows for heating and cooling related energy savings up to 90% comparing to typical traditional building and over 75% compared with average buildings. Passive house building use less than 1.5 liter per square of living space per annum much less compared to typical low level energy buildings .Their level of comfort is highly praised. They absorb energy from any available sources inside the building for example, the body heat from occupants or solar heat entering into the building making heat with a lot of ease. Windows which are well insulated, building with a good insulated exterior wall. The roof and the floor are both well insulated to prevent heat loss in winter in the house and keep it out during summer. The ventilation system consistently supplies the building with fresh air making room for superior air quality without causing any dampness. This guarantees low radon levels hence, improves overall health conditions. There is recycling of used air in the exhaust and this is done by a highly efficient heat recovery unit. Designing and construction cost can be a bit higher compared to a traditional building. For example, the outer wall thickness will be dependent on the site hence, it tends to vary from one location to another. Additionally, the design also varies according to the weather condition and the location. However, the construction and designing cost is recovered after the tenants start paying rent.

Passive housing is characterized by, its heavy insulation which is the main component of a passive house. An insulator layer wraps continuously around the building and covers beneath the concrete slab in the basement, minimizing heat transfer between indoor and outdoor space. Further, an airtight construction prevent moist air from getting into the home's construction where it can cause mold, affect the quality of air inside and also cause structural damage.

Essential Components for passive house design should be well insulated walls and highly efficient windows. The windows assist in admitting high levels of natural sunlight also results to excessive heat gain, especially if they cast light on an area of thermal mass. They are commonly fitted with triple panned windows with low e-glazing, argon gas and insulated frames. Passive solar gains is mandatory since it is the primary heat source for a passive house. Also, a passive heating technology is the most important and the core part of the passive house concept.

Differences of interior insulation to exterior insulation is that, despite most people favoring price to quality, interior insulation which is done by inserting rigid insulation boards into the wall or by building a stand wall filled in with insulation material such as mineral wool fiber, is favored over exterior and it is cheaper. Internal Insulation however reduces the floor area of any room in whose applied the thickness is 100mm. It requires skirting board door frames and external filling to be removed and reattached. It can make it hard to fix heavy items to inside walls although a specialized fixing can be done. It is more likely to cause dampness and it is less efficient compared to external insulation. Exterior insulation is done by fixing insulation material layer to the wall covering it with a special type of plaster. One can choose a smooth, textured, tiled, painted, finished with brick slips or paneled finishing. Exterior insulation does not reduce the floor area, it renews outer wall appearances, improving sound resistance and weather proofing .It as well protects the brick work hence, increasing lifespan of the walls. External insulation minimizes condensation on internal walls and this helps in preventing dampness

Figure 1: exterior insulation and interior insulation respectively.

The advantages of exterior wall insulation is, first, it is able to increase the energy efficiency of the property. 10 centimeters of the PIR insulating board added to the walls of a house will take the u-value to less than 0.28. Secondly, the current building regulations for walls are not actually stringent as this, so the energy saving will be substantial. Thirdly, it also improves the wall's ability to withstand the elements. Fourth, it helps prevent damp entering the home, although it will have no impact on rising damp. Fifth, the installers are able to remove the wall furniture so, for most people this provide a good opportunity to check the integrity of it at the same time, resealing any leaks and replacing old pipe work .Sixth, it is able to reduce the amount of noise getting in the house. Last but not least one is able to retain the same energy since wall become warm by the heating system. This means that when the heat is turned off, this stored warmth will be slowly released back into the home, meaning that your home is kept at a more even temperature and not to have condensation on the walls.

Major disadvantages of external wall insulation is that, one, not all solid wall insulation is made equal. If not fixed with an adhesive or mechanical fixings it will come away from the walls in time which will cost more to re fix. Two, it can be costly incase the soffit is more than 100mm so the external wall insulation can't end up right up. Unfortunately, it is not and therefore the insulation needs to be capped at the top or the roof needs to be extended over the top of the insulation.

Advantages of the internal wall insulation is that one, it has no impact on the external appearance of the property hence no planning concerns. Two, it is relatively easy to do. One can do one room at a time to minimize disruption. Three, there is no added scaffolding expenses associated with insulating a property internally.

Disadvantages of Internal wall insulation is one, losing internal space is the major issue with internal wall insulation. Two, you get cold bridging between the floors unless floorboards are lifted and the insulation is run uninterrupted. Three it can't be installed in case of damp penetrating issues otherwise far worse issues can occur down the line.

Advantages of the model is that, despite the initial cost of construction and design is being high, the owner is comfortable and is satisfied by this service. The design depends on the location and weather conditions in the place. Passive buildings are characterized by airtight construction which is very important in preventing humid air from outside from penetrating since it can cause mold. Seco...