Thermally Broken Balconies
“Building envelope heat loss has historically been simplified due to past difficulties in cost-effectively providing more accuracy. This has generally led to overly optimistic assessments of building envelope performance by way of ignoring or underestimating the impact of thermal bridging.” 7
A.3 Rethinking the Status Quo Buildings and construction together account for 36% of global final energy use and 39% of energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2 ) emissions.8 Optimizing building energy use and reducing carbon emissions as they relate to balcony thermal bridging requires innovation and challenging the status quo in three main areas: 1. Introduction of higher performance requirements; 2. More accurate building performance energy modelling; and, 3. Understanding thermal bridging and updating traditional construction methodologies. The following sections address these three main areas as they relate to balcony design and constructability, as well as overall building performance.
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