There is a rising demand for housing throughout Ontario as evidenced from the increase in residential building permits. Prefabricated construction is seen as a possible solution to meeting the demand for affordable housing by reducing labour, material and delivery (transportation) costs. Prefabricated construction processes offer a high degree of design and construction integration and quality control/assurance to reduce costs and provide affordable housing solution to rural and remote communities throughout Ontario, including those living in First Nations communities.
For this report, students conducted case studies on 17 wall assemblies having high R-value including THERM modeling and analysis of data and review of the thermal control, moisture control, constructability and estimated cost of construction. Hygrothermal analysis of the materials chosen for the wall assemblies were simulated using WUFI; based on similar simulation work conducted by Lepage, Schumacher and Lukachko (see report for references).
This report presents the results of the hygrothermal analysis of building envelope wall assemblies suitable for the different climate zones in Ontario, taking into consideration wall assembly constructability and costs.
