Description

Having our houses well insulated with a minimum of thermal bridges has substantial health, energy efficiency and financial benefits.

Measurements made of 47 newly constructed New Zealand houses found the average percentage of timber framing was much higher than levels assumed by regulators and the industry.

Such high levels indicate that thermal bridging is compromising the thermal performance of walls and may mean that designed R-values are not being achieved.

Scope

The aim was to gain information about:

• the scale of the issue of high framing percentages in New Zealand houses
• the effect that high framing percentages have on as-built R-values
• the reasons why high percentages of framing might be occurring.

This research includes:

• Results
• What do the findings mean?
• Possible explanations for higher framing ratios
• Conclusion