44 Ways #19: Build Tight, Ventilate Right

Hello! This is Episode 419. This is Way #19 of the 44 Ways to Create Your Sustainable Home series, and it’s the first episode in Section Five: The Building Envelope.

We’ve spent four sections of the ‘44 Ways’ series covering a lot of information for your sustainable renovation or new build. Site, orientation, breezes, passive design, energy and water selections, renewables, and the tools that help you model and measure how your home will actually perform. All of that work is most valuable when the building envelope itself is doing its job well.

This is Way #19: Build Tight, Ventilate Right.

[For all resources mentioned in this podcast and a free, downloadable PDF transcript, head to www.undercoverarchitect.com/419]

Section Five is about creating a sustainable skin in your building envelope. The skin of your building (your floors, walls and roof) is supposed to protect and shelter you. There’s a science to how it can do this well.

And when you understand how vapour, moisture and temperature move from the inside to the outside of your home (and vice versa), you’ll learn it’s important to design and build a building envelope that suits your climate, mitigates the risk of mould growth, helps maintain comfortable indoor air temperatures, and that is durable and long-lasting.

I want to start by taking on one of the most persistent myths in residential construction. The idea that homes need to breathe. Our homes don’t need to breathe. The people inside them do. And they need to ideally breathe fresh, unpolluted air, whatever the weather or conditions outside their home.

In this episode, I take you through what the phrase ‘build tight, ventilate right’ actually means, what a ‘breathing’ home is often confused with, what building tight looks like in practice (and how tight is tight), why relying on opening windows alone often isn’t enough, and what mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) adds in a high-performance home.

As always, if you'd like to access a full transcript of this episode and links to any resources I mention, head to www.undercoverarchitect.com/419.

Now, let's dive in!

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST:

For links, images and resources mentioned in this podcast, head to >>> www.undercoverarchitect.com/419