february 19, 2025 ~ rothchild’s, 12:00 ~ 1:00
East Tennessee ASHRAE Members,
We will hold our February chapter meeting on Wednesday, February 19 at Rothchild’s Catering on Kingston Pike from 12:00 – 1:00 pm. Please come as early as 11:45 to socialize with other members and friends in our industry. Lunch cost will be $25 per person and will be payable by credit card, check, or cash at the door. We are excited to announce that our speaker for February will be Gina Accawi of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Gina was part of a team that wrote the October 2024 ASHRAE Journal Residential Applications Column entitled “A Tool to Assist in the Education and Design Of Durable Envelopes”.
Presentation Topic – User Friendly Web-Based Tool to Assess the Energy Efficiency and Durability of Residential Wall Retrofits:
Moisture durability of a building envelope component can be difficult to predict. It depends on the materials used, the location in the assembly, macro- and micro- climate of the building, air tightness, the interior environment, and construction quality. Modern building codes require more insulation and tighter construction but provide little guidance about how to ensure these energy-efficient assemblies are designed and built to retain moisture durability. Furthermore, as new products are introduced to the market, builders are increasingly uncertain about the long-term durability of their building envelope designs. As building envelopes get tighter and better insulated, moisture management is key to a durable and high-performing wall assembly.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that high-R building envelope assemblies in new and existing single and multifamily homes can decrease energy use by about 2.75 quads per year which is nearly 3 percent of the energy consumed in the United States https://www.energy.gov/eere/buildings/articles/research-and-development-roadmap-windows-and-building-envelope (DOE, 2014). However, advanced building envelope systems are rarely selected by building designers. Current solutions are unfamiliar to many designers, builders, contractors, and code officials and therefore perceived as risky to condensation and moisture accumulation in those assemblies. The web application is a no-cost, web-based expert system tool that provides guidance on the moisture durability and energy efficiency of new and retrofit wall assembly designs. It leverages industry knowledge, field studies and literature, along with a database of thousands of pre-simulated hygrothermal models to provide rapid feedback on moisture durability of a proposed design. The tool also provides guidance on wall assembly design, as well as access to a library of building science knowledge tailored for the user’s location.
Speaker – Gina Accawi:
Gina Accawi has thirty years of experience in the field of software engineering and software architecture. During her tenure at ORNL, her focus has been architecting, developing, and managing teams of developers to deliver software solutions in support of the scientists and engineers at the laboratory. The focus of most of her work is constructing applications to perform energy consumption analysis and make straightforward suggestions or allow side-by-side comparisons to reduce usage.
The Research Application Development Group, part of the Secure and Digital Manufacturing Section, is focused on the integration of capabilities in communication, computing, storage and user interface for advanced manufacturing process analysis, modeling, and control to ensure an energy efficient and secure manufacturing ecosystem. The goal is to foster a vibrant team of talented, professional software specialists delivering robust user interfaces, databases, applications, and Internet-of-Things solutions, leveraging expertise in machine learning and algorithms, data, deployment, security, visualization, architecture, and quality assurance.
Thanks!
Zach Rose, PE
Chapter President 2023-25
865-771-7059