CE4: Architects: Stop Worrying About Dew Point! A Conversation with Christine Williamson

We are pleased to offer OAA Virtual Conference Week 2021 available for free on this channel. Since these on-demand sessions are not live and do not include an interactive component, they are offered as Unstructured Learning. Members need to self-report on their transcripts any unstructured hours logged after the Conference.

About the session:
Architects: Stop Worrying About Dew Point! A Conversation with Christine Williamson, Building Science Fight Club sponsored by Canada Masonry Design Group

Session Description:
Dew point is the least useful and most confusing tool for understanding vapor control in architectural design, yet the term is inescapable. Proposing alterations to a wall or roof assembly turns into a Where’s Waldo? game of locating the dew point and figuring out where our changes might be moving it. But our real concern isn’t the location of the dew point—it’s controlling condensation so our walls and roofs don’t rot.

Condensation occurs only where there is a relatively cool surface (think: cold beer, warm day) and, for that reason, there are three – and only three – ways to control condensation: warm the condensing surface, prevent moisture (especially moisture-laden air) from reaching the cold surface, or remove moisture from the environment.
In this presentation, Christine Williamson provides architects and architects in training with a more useful framework for evaluating condensation risk in walls and roofs, giving them the tools to understand the risk level of a proposed wall or roof assembly without ever having to run a dew-point calculation or hydrothermal model.

Learning Objectives:

Describe the two primary concerns in building-enclosure design
Describe the three approaches to condensation control in wall and roof design
Articulate the connection between condensation control and the vapour permeance of building materials
Identify specific commonly proposed design changes to a standard cavity-insulated residential wall that would make it more risky or less risky from a condensation-control perspective
Speaker:
Christine Williamson
@BuildingScienceFightClub

Christine Williamson has spent her career in building science forensics, discovering why buildings fail, and working with owners, architects, and builders to remedy the problems. Her new construction consulting helps architects use building science not only to mitigate risk of failure, but also to help them make their projects as energy efficient as they are beautiful. She is the founder of the Instagram account @BuildingScienceFightClub, an educational project that teaches architects about building science and construction. She graduated from Princeton University and studied at Boston Architectural College before completing her Master's of Architecture at New School of Architecture + Design. She is a member and past chair of ASHRAE Technical Committee 1.12, Moisture Management in Buildings.

Moderator:
Agata Mancini
M.Arch., OAA Principal, Assembled Light