Prefabricated Envelope Solutions for California Low-Rise Buildings
Research Team:
RMI (Prime), David Baker Architects, RDH Building Science, AEA, Redwood Energy, Signetron, Nexii, BGDD, Small Planet USA
Prefabricated Envelope Solutions for California Low-Rise Buildings
Research Team:
RMI (Prime), David Baker Architects, RDH Building Science, AEA, Redwood Energy, Signetron, Nexii, BGDD, Small Planet USA
Challenge
Currently, envelope improvements are rarely part of business-as-usual renovation projects due to cost barriers caused by longer construction time when high performance windows, wall insulation, or recladding is installed on a building. This time, and therefore cost, barrier will be prohibitive in achieving all-electric, low thermal load buildings that will avoid excessive build out of the existing electric grid. To bypass the time-consuming, disruptive, bespoke, and costly envelope improvement processes, the Project Team will help develop unitized, prefabricated exterior façade panels that can be installed on an existing building in less than a week. A unitized panel includes windows, doors, exterior cladding, and air sealing such that once they are attached to the existing building, there is no other envelope work required.
Project Objective
Prefabricated Envelope Solutions for California Low-Rise Buildings will design, test, produce, implement, and validate the performance of two prefabricated exterior panel retrofit solutions to aid in the adoption of zero net carbon (ZNC) retrofits across California. The Project Team will develop two variations of prefabricated exterior retrofit panels that will be deployed on one low-rise multifamily building each. These panels will aim to incorporate high performance, low-embodied carbon insulation, structural support, and high-performance windows and doors to comprise a fully unitized exterior retrofit panel. The panels will wrap an existing building to provide higher levels of insulation and lower air leakage, while reducing the amount of onsite labor and tenant disruption typically experienced with building envelope retrofits. This technology is integral in achieving low thermal load buildings that can then be electrified without severe grid implications.