R&D

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Intalok
Lockwood
Organic Building NZ
New Zealand Pine Manufacturers Association

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Substance and Credibility.

The Solidwood Group commissioned research to provide substance and credibility to points of contention in regards to SolidWood buildings

R&D

Lincoln University
We contacted Don McKenzie of Lincoln University, who had experience in Natural Resources Engineering. Lincoln had carried out a project for the CONCRETE people, which showed that increased thermal mass would ameliorate the internal environment, meaning less heating in winter and less c ooling in summer.

We considered piggybacking on the project, but the timeframe was too long before valid results would be generated.

We were told that simulation programs were available which would do the same job.

Scion
We employed SCION to carry out work on the heat of hydration of wood; ie how much heat was generated when wood absorbed moisture from a high humidity atmosphere, and how much heat was absorbed when water was released from wood into a dry atmosphere.

(This is analogous to a wool jersey getting wet and generating heat, while a synthetic jersey will just get cold and clammy) However the answer was … not much. The result was positive (it did act to improve the comfort of the environment) but it was in terms of watts/m2 rather than kilowatts.

SCION were not asked to evaluate the effect of this moisture transfer on the humidity of the internal environment as we felt we had somebody better equipped to carry this out.

Ensys Ltd - Engineered Energy and Environmental Control Systems
We asked Larry Bellamy of Ensys Ltd to evaluate how the effect of thermal mass and moisture absorption / desorption would effect the internal environment and heating cooling energy required.

Larry first did a literature review which showed that the concepts were promising. He then carried out a full simulation analysis using the BSim program.

The results showed that: The energy performance of solid wood construction is superior to that of timber frame construction The absorption and desorption of water had little effect on energy performance (as found by SCION) The use of solid wood improves indoor humidity.

Department of Building and Housing
At this time, the Department of Building and Housing was revising the minimum energy efficiency requirements for New Zealand homes. They were proposing severe increases in required insulation values, some of which would only have been met with great difficulty and cost by solid wood home producers. Armed with Larry Bellamy’s report (and Larry Bellamy) the Solid Wood Building Initiative made a submission to DBH that equivalent thermal performance could be achieved by a solid wood home with lower insulation in the walls than originally proposed by DBH.

The DBH accepted this submission and new minimum requirements for energy efficiency have been published (August 2007) by DBH which are much more acceptable to the solid wood building industry.

Research Carried out by Dr Larry Bellamy
Simulation analysis of the energy performance and humidity of solid wood and light timber frame homes.
Energy savings due to the thermal mass of solid wood construction.
Energy and Comfort Performance of Solid Wood Buildings: Literature Review.