Exterior insulation thickness and its effect on energy usage and thermal comfort on a high-performance multi-unit residential building

Abstract

Orion is a high-performance three-storey low-rise woodframe construction multi-unit residential building located in Pemberton, British Columbia, Canada. The purpose of this project is to identify the relationship between the exterior insulation’s thickness and the heating and cooling energy usage of the high performance building. Three DesignBuilder models of 152 mm, 101 mm, and 51 mm thick exterior EPS insulation were simulated. Results show that the benefit of having more insulation to maintain the heat inside the building outweighs the benefit of having less insulation to allow the heat to disperse by a factor 20 in terms of kilowatt-hours.