{"id":2783,"date":"2012-09-30T13:32:44","date_gmt":"2012-09-30T13:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whataresips.com\/?p=173"},"modified":"2013-07-31T15:50:57","modified_gmt":"2013-07-31T15:50:57","slug":"sips-and-energy-star-v3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sipsupply.com\/sip-blog\/sips-and-energy-star-v3\/","title":{"rendered":"SIPs and ENERGY STAR v3"},"content":{"rendered":"

What are SIPs?<\/a><\/p>\n

The Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s ENERGY STAR for New Homes program provides guidelines and verification methods for new homes that are at least 15 percent more energy efficient than the 2004 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC).<\/p>\n

Beginning on January 1, 2012, all new homes must follow the ENERGY STAR Version 3 guidelines that include higher insulation levels and an expanded thermal enclosure checklist.\u00a0 Building with structural insulated panels (SIPs) allows builders to meet these requirements faster and easier than with traditional wood framing by creating a well-insulated and airtight building enclosure in a single step.<\/p>\n

Builders have the option of constructing a home to the prescriptive requirements of the ENERGY STAR Reference Design or demonstrating that their home meets the equivalent performance of the Reference Design through energy modeling.\u00a0 Both methods require inspection by a RESNET certified home energy rater.<\/p>\n

Prescriptive Path
\n<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Insulation:<\/strong>\u00a0The building enclosure must be insulated to meet the 2009 IECC.\u00a0 ENERGY STAR allows builders to demonstrate compliance using an alternative equivalent UA calculation that accounts for the lack of thermal bridging in continuous insulation assemblies like SIPs.<\/p>\n

Air infiltration:<\/strong>\u00a0ENERGY STAR qualified homes are subject to a blower door test that determines the amount of air infiltration.\u00a0 SIPs have a well-established track record of testing below 2 ACH50, and experienced SIP crews routinely build homes that test between 0.5 and 1 ACH50.\u00a0 Simply installing SIPs per the manufacturer\u2019s specifications will easily meet the ENERGY STAR air infiltration requirements without any of the additional air sealing measures typically needed on wood frame homes.<\/p>\n

Ductwork in conditioned space:<\/strong>\u00a0Placing ductwork in the conditioned attic space created by a SIP roof bypasses the ENERGY STAR requirement of insulating ductwork.\u00a0 In hot climates, the Prescriptive Path requires a radiant barrier if more than 10 feet of ductwork is placed in an unconditioned attic.\u00a0 If both the ductwork and air handler are placed in conditioned space, duct leakage testing can be waived.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thermal Enclosure Checklist
\n<\/strong>
\nAll ENERGY STAR homes are subject to a visual inspection of the building enclosure following the Thermal Enclosure Checklist that examines common areas for thermal bypasses and air leakage.\u00a0 A complete SIP building envelope makes passing the inspection virtually automatic.<\/p>\n

Insulation<\/strong>: All insulation must meet RESNET Grade I, meaning that cavity insulation must fill the entire cavity without any sizable gaps or compression.\u00a0 The exception is homes with insulated sheathing, where Grade II is permitted. \u00a0SIPs deliver Grade I insulation every time, without relying on the work of subcontractors.<\/p>\n

Fully-aligned air barriers:<\/strong>\u00a0The checklist names a number of locations where a complete air barrier must be installed that is fully aligned with the insulation.\u00a0 This includes attic knee walls, skylight shaft walls, and installing wind baffles on attic eaves.\u00a0 With SIPs, the insulating foam core is fully encased in a code-compliant air barrier of oriented strand board (OSB), so no additional effort is needed to meet this requirement.<\/p>\n

Air sealing:<\/strong>\u00a0ENERGY STAR identifies several mandatory air sealing measures for wood framing, including sealing top and bottom plates, caulking sheetrock to top plates at attic-to-wall interfaces, sealing wiring penetration, and many others.\u00a0 SIPs require their own sealing measures per manufacturer\u2019s specifications, but because they are manufactured in large sections (up to 8\u2019 x 24\u2019) there are fewer gaps to seal.<\/p>\n

Reduced thermal bridging:<\/strong>\u00a0Builders using wood framing are required to implement a number of advanced framing methods to reduce thermal bridging.\u00a0 For conventional framing, the checklist requires insulated headers, insulation at corners, and reduced window and door framing.\u00a0 Alternately, builders can add insulated sheathing, use double wall construction, or build with SIPs.<\/p>\n

SIPs and ENERGY STAR v3<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What are SIPs?<\/a><\/p>\n

The Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s ENERGY STAR for New Homes program provides guidelines and verification methods for new homes that are at least 15 percent more energy efficient than the 2004 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC).<\/p>\n

Beginning on January 1, 2012, all new homes must follow the ENERGY STAR Version 3 guidelines that include higher insulation […]<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

SIPs and ENERGY STAR v3<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[53,52,54,51,50],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sipsupply.com\/sip-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2783"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sipsupply.com\/sip-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sipsupply.com\/sip-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sipsupply.com\/sip-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sipsupply.com\/sip-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sipsupply.com\/sip-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2783\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sipsupply.com\/sip-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sipsupply.com\/sip-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sipsupply.com\/sip-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}