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Design Case Studies
Published in Chitrarekha Kabre, Synergistic Design of Sustainable Built Environments, 2020
The RSF building includes a large crawl space under the two main office wings. Dark-colored perforated sheet metal attached to south facade functions as a solar collector; the heated air behind the dark corrugated metal cladding is drawn by fans located in the building’s crawl space, a thermal mass labyrinth. The crawl space functions as a thermal battery, storing thermal energy and allowing the ventilation air for the building to be passively preheated during the heating season. The labyrinth also serves as a heat sink for reject heat from the data center, dramatically lowering the cooling load of the data center year-round.
Auditing, Planning, and Retrofitting
Published in Stan Harbuck, Donna Harbuck, Residential Energy Auditing and Improvement, 2021
Be on the lookout for possible moisture problems in crawlspace areas that are likely to put retrofit work at risk. Determine the underlying causes of existing or possible moisture damage or problems, or the purpose of insulating and retrofitting a home is being defeated. The risk of moisture problems goes up when a crawlspace rather than a basement is retrofitted. Often builders will install a crawlspace rather than a basement because of water table or other related issues.
Low-cost radon monitoring with validation by a reference instrument
Published in Instrumentation Science & Technology, 2023
Mbarndouka Taamté Jacob, Koyang François, Gondji Dieu Souffit, Oumar Bobbo Modibo, Hamadou Yerima Abba, Kountchou Noubé Michaux, Shinji Tokonami
Radon concentration in the air of a building depends on the characteristics of the soil, building material, and on the architectural characteristics and the ventilation rate.[15] It also varies according to the habits of its occupants in terms of ventilation and heating. The building parts which are directly in contact with the ground (cellar, crawl space, floors of the lowest level) are those through which radon enters the building before reaching the occupied rooms. The infiltration of radon into buildings, basements and crawl spaces is facilitated by the presence of cracks and the passage of pipes through slabs and floors.[16] The presence of radon in a room thus varies according to the opening of the doors and windows; the concentration increases if the building is confined and poorly ventilated.[17]
Building Resilience through Flood Risk Reduction: The Benefits of Amphibious Foundation Retrofits to Heritage Structures
Published in International Journal of Architectural Heritage, 2021
Elizabeth C. English, Meiyi Chen, Rebecca Zarins, Poorna Patange, Jeana C. Wiser
It must be clearly understood that buoyant foundation retrofits are not a universal solution to flood risk reduction. In theory, any structure that can be permanently elevated is capable of being amphibiated; however, at this early stage in the development of this new technology, we would not at present consider all flood-endangered heritage buildings to be good candidates for amphibiation. Rather, the technique as currently developed is proposed for application to fairly small structures constructed of relatively light-weight materials, preferably with an existing foundation system that is pier-and-beam construction or something similar with a crawl space beneath the ground floor. As such, this strategy may be more readily applicable in parts of the world such as North America or Asia, or in rural areas, rather than in the majority of heritage European cities with predominantly masonry construction.
Retrofitting suspended timber ground-floors; comparing aggregated and disaggregated evaluation methods
Published in Building Research & Information, 2020
David Glew, David Johnston, Dominic Miles-Shenton, Felix Thomas
The case study dwelling has a ground floor area of 44 m², and is a stepped and staggered end-terrace bungalow, which was built in the 1960s and is orientated East to West. The Northside of the dwelling is sheltered by a separate group of stepped and staggered terraced bungalows. The external walls are of traditional brick and block cavity construction, wet plastered internally, with the 60 mm external wall cavity previously retro-filled with mineral fibre insulation. The dwelling has a cold pitched roof, with 200 mm mineral wool insulation located at the ceiling level. It is double-glazed throughout and has an uninsulated suspended timber ground floor. A concrete stepped raft foundation is located beneath the floor, resulting in a 660 mm crawl space. Floor joists run east to west and are supported on honeycomb brick sleeper walls (see Figure 2). Five 229 × 76 mm (9″ × 3″) airbricks are located on the east and west elevation (three on the east and two on the west), providing underfloor ventilation. The cavity party wall is of block construction, wet plastered internally, and has a 60 mm unfilled cavity. Purpose provided ventilation is achieved via trickle vents on the window heads and intermittent extract fans in the kitchen and bathroom.