Building Performance FAQs #1: What is Building Performance?

1. What is Building Performance?

According to the Building Performance Institute, building performance is a systematic approach to improving the comfort, health, safety, energy efficiency and durability of our customers homes and places of work.

Comfort is improved by treating the building as a system of processes that interact with each other constantly, whether we are aware of it or not. The challenge is designing a strategy that enables them to work together correctly for the benefit of the occupants, not in conflict with each other. Realizing if we improve one aspect of the system it can have a positive or negative effect on another part.

Health and safety are improved by not just concentrating on energy savings alone but on indoor air quality risks especially carbon monoxide and the efficiency of combustion appliances such as water heaters and furnaces.

The number one enemy of a building's durability and subsequent longevity is the movement of moisture through it's cavities and assemblies. A thorough understanding of how moisture is actually being transported within the structure and finding ways to short circuit that process by air-sealing, air-balancing and other methods can add years to a buildings life-cycle.