Building Envelope Retro-Commissioning for Safe Havens

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Building Envelope Retro-Commissioning for Safe Havens

Track 4: Testing, Analysis & Quality Assurance

Thursday, April 20, 10:30 – 11:30

Presentation Overview
About the Presenter(s)

Presentation Overview

Performance testing of the air barrier system with air leakage testing has been around for years in the residential market and is gaining ground in the commercial market, but what about applying this same technology and products to Safe Havens? Safe Havens are often designed for people to shelter in place when a chemical attack or leak occurs. Many industrial facilities and power plants have Safe Havens but they are not tested or designed to an air leakage standard. Over the course of a year multiple locations and building types were selected for Safe Haven and the building envelope retro-commissioning began to assess the Safe Havens. Retro-Commissioning the Safe Havens included pre and post air leakage testing, diagnostic inspection to determine air leakage pathways, scope of work development to air seal the selected spaces and over seeing repairs to the building envelope system. Based on the testing of the existing spaces recommendations for future projects included incorporating building envelope commissioning and specifying an air leakage rate for new Safe Havens. Testing Safe Havens for air leakage is different than conducting a traditional whole building air leakage test because many of the spaces consists of individual rooms within a building.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will be able to compare air leakage test results of various Safe Havens to known standards.
Participants will be able to evaluate potential areas as viable or nonviable Safe Havens.
Participants will be able to test and predict the air leakage rate of Safe Havens.
Participants will be able to identify common recommendations for reducing air leakage in Safe Havens.

Level of content:

Intermediate

50%

Audience:

Design Professionals

Contractors

Testing, Analysis and Quality Assurance Program

100%

About the Presenter(s)

Meghan McDermott, BECxP & CxA+BE

Co-owner, Business Manager
High Performance Building Solutions, Inc., Charlotte, NC

Ms. McDermott is one of the co-owners of High Performance Building Solutions (HPBS) and is the company’s business manager. She conducts energy assessments, energy modeling, energy conservation savings calculations and diagnostic investigations for HPBS. She is proficient in Wrightsoft, REM/Rate, eQUEST and AutoCAD. Ms. McDermott graduated with Honors from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Architectural Engineering with a concentration in Energy. She is a member if the ABAA technical committee that wrote the US Army Corps of Engineers Air Leakage Test Protocol for Building Envelopes (Version 3). She is a qualified level II thermographer for buildings and roofs and electrical inspection. Ms. McDermott has been providing design review, inspections and testing services for commercial building envelope projects for the last eight years.

Francis Conlin, PE, BECxP

Senior Engineer
High Performance Building Solutions, Inc., Durham, NC

Mr. Conlin is the Senior Engineer with High Performance Building Solutions and co-owner. Mr. Conlin serves as the technical advisor for the many projects HPBS is involved with. He has over 25 years of experience providing high performance energy efficiency building consulting services for both commercial and residential buildings. Mr. Conlin’s building performance experience includes: engineering, project management, building diagnostics, risk management, moisture management, remediation consulting, research, training and marketing. Mr. Conlin holds a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tennessee and is a licensed Professional Engineer in North Carolina and Alabama. He is a qualified level II thermographer for buildings and roofs and has been providing design review, inspections and testing services for building envelope projects for the last eight years. Mr. Conlin is also a certified Air Barrier Association of America (ABAA) auditor.