Dr. Joe Lstiburek Building Science Seminars

Description

*Refunds for cost of participation or class transfer are only available if cancellation notice is provided at least 7 days prior to the event. Payment is required at time of registration.*

Session 1: Mold- Mold has been around pretty much forever.  It is not complicated to figure out.  Mold needs water.  It needs liquid water.  So where does the relative humidity stuff come from?  Well you need condensation.  But, the requirements in the code and from mold experts pick relative humidity levels significantly below 100 percent - the “condensation limit”.  Ah, a safety factor. Sort of but not true.  A crazy Irishman who irritated the English and had to hide in Scotland figured it out.  He was born with the name William Thompson but ended up becoming  a Lord because Queen Victoria looked after him. He became Lord Kelvin, named after the Kelvin River outside his laboratory in Scotland.  The Kelvin Equation is the key to understanding mold.  Capillary condensation occurs at significantly lower levels of relative humidity less than 100 percent.  But, it depends on the material. Paper faced gypsum board is way different than plaster which is way different than wood which is way different than glass.

Session 2: People Need to Breathe- Walls do Not- The order of importance is not complicated.  Fire first. Structure second. Durability third.  Energy last.  When you make energy first you mess up fire, structure and durability.  And now the carbon thing is beginning to mess up everything, even the energy thing.  So, how to stay out of trouble, meet the code, not go broke, and make everyone happy.  We are not talking therapy here, we are talking physics, materials and constructability.  A map is also necessary.  Miami is different than Memphis and both are different than Minneapolis.  What about Houston?  Well, you probably shouldn’t listen to anyone from Minneapolis and Memphis.  But, the manufacturers and suppliers of materials come from everywhere. You are going to have to not listen to some manufacturers and suppliers.  It gets worse, just because you meet code does not mean you are not going to get into trouble.  And once you figure out walls, roofs and foundations are next. The good news is the rules for walls also work for roofs and foundations.

Session 3: The Science of Dehumidification- It used to be so easy. An air conditioner used to be a dehumidifier.  Not any more.  The more efficient we made the air conditioner the worse they became in controlling humidity.  Now you need a dehumidifier.  It gets even worse. The indoor air quality cult believe that “dilution is the solution to indoor pollution”. So lets bring in a whole bunch of outdoor air.  Works in Houston… No it does not.  Whatever happened to source control?  If you don’t have pollutants in your building, if you don’t have people in your building, things become easy.  But you have pollutants and people and you are going to need air from the outside and it has moisture in it.  It gets worse. Lots of dehumidifiers are not very good. High air change in Houston is not easy to deal with but, it is possible to make it all work.  The physics are not complicated, they just are not understood by most folks designing, constructing and operating buildings in Houston.  So if you want high air change in Houston we can make it work.  You should not need high air change, but many clients want high air change. We can make it all work, but you need to know stuff.   This session is about the stuff you need to know.