Why Buildings are Created With an Air Tight Structure
In 2017, the Varming Consulting Engineers team was involved in a building design project at Three Park Place Offices for our client Lisrua DAC in Dublin. We are very proud of the overall project and the contribution our mechanical, electrical and sustainability engineers made to the project, but here we focus on one particular aspect of the works carried out – the creation of an airtight building envelope and why it’s important to do so.
Why an Airtight Structure is Important
There are a number of reasons for having an airtight building envelope. It improves energy efficiency by preventing heat energy from escaping through unintended gaps while protecting the performance of the insulation. It ensures thermal comfort by preventing cold draughts from entering the building, and it prevents the moisture and humidity inside the building being carried into the building structure, which when it comes into contact with a cold surface can cause condensation. Our building services design consultants understand the fact that this kind of condensation can have a have serious implications for the structure of the building in question.
Insidious and Damaging
As well as causing harmful mould and mildew, condensation can also cause rotting and general degradation of a building’s load bearing structure, which can obviously have some serious consequences if left unchecked. Mechanical and electrical engineering firms know how important having an airtight structure envelope is to the fundamental integrity of a building, the comfort of its occupants and its overall energy efficiency, and why it must always be included as part of the design.
The Three Park Place Offices project also included low energy lighting, energy & power metering, rainwater harvesting and low flow cistern taps, combined heat and ice bank chilled water storage, making it extremely efficient in the way it uses resources in its day to day running.
If you would like to find out more about anything mentioned here or about intelligent, sustainable design and how it could help your next building project, visit us online at www.varming.ie or call our friendly, experienced team of consulting engineers on +353 01 4872300 who are on hand to offer their considerable know how and expertise.
