Grant: Engage Grants Program

Buildings have significant environmental footprint. Canadian buildings consume about 50% of extractednatural resources and produce 25% of landfill solid waste. They are also responsible for consumption of aboutone-third of the national energy supply and release 28% of the total greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). There isa need to develop efficient use of energy and natural resources as well as a shift from non-renewable torenewable natural resources. From environmental footprint perspectives, the ideal construction material islocal, renewable, has low embedded energy and low GHG emissions. The proposed research project aims tocharacterize the hygrothermal properties of a natural fiber based material and to assess its long-termperformance as an exterior building envelope assembly. The thermal and moisture transport and storageproperties of the material at different temperature and relative humidity will be measured using the specializedfacilities available at the Hygrothermal Property Measurement Laboratory (HPML) at the Building ScienceCentre of Excellence. The hygrothermal performance of the material in two different climate zones, mild andcold, will be investigated using an advanced hygrothermal model, HAMFit. In addition to the indoor andoutdoor boundary conditions, the impact of different finishing of the material in the inside and the outsidesurfaces on the hygrothermal performance of the system will also be investigated. In the study, various walldesigns with different thicknesses, cladding materials and interior finishes will be considered. Based onanalysis of the simulation results and the measured material property data, the optimal building envelopedesign for the new material will be established and reported.