ir infiltration through leaky windows and walls can significantly reduce the energy efficiency of your home. Fiberglass batt insulation in frame homes can shift and compress, leaving cold spots in the walls and roof. The design of our Murus building panels, along with conscientious building methods, can eliminate excessive air infiltration.
AIR QUALITY
Conventional homes are notoriously leaky and result in frequent air exchanges, where indoor air is replaced by outdoor air. This may inadvertently help indoor air quality, but it also negatively impacts the heating and cooling efficiency. The trouble is that air moves through leaky homes more on windy days and almost not at all on very still days, which means that air quality changes with the weather. We prefer to have people control air quality, not the weather.
In a well insulated, tight home, there are a few ways to maintain healthy air quality. First of all, our homes have air exchanges well within the safe range. In addition, home owners can take charge of their own air quality by manually ventilating their home and opening windows. Air-to-air heat exchangers can also be designed into the home. They precondition outside air and exhaust inside air. These systems are very effective and are especially useful in cold climates, but they can be pricey. Most of our customers opt to manually ventilate their homes.
NATURAL COOLING
Several design techniques increase the comfort of your Sunlight home in summer. Natural convection is a simple and very effective method of cooling and bringing in fresh air. Simply opening properly placed high and low windows will circulate air, and this is often all that's needed.
Correctly-sized roof overhangs, window coverings and landscaping can also reduce unwanted heat. Properly placed deciduous trees shade windows from sun, but allow winter sun to enter between the leafless branches.
The thermal mass designed into a solar home stores heat collected by the sun in the winter, which then radiates into the room as the evening air temperature cools after the sun sets. Thermal mass keeps temperatures more even in a solar home. It also helps keep air cooler inside during the summer since it naturally absorbs heat from the ambient air. In climates that cool off at night, ventilating the home overnight cools the mass inside so that it can do its job better the next day.
This way to find out about the "green dilemma".
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