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Ann. Rev. Energy 1986. 11 : 1-24

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SUPERINSULATED HOUSES
William A. Shurcliff

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Physics Department, Harvard University, Cambridge,

Massachusetts 02 138
INTRODUCTION

Superinsulation is a direct response to the fast-rising cost of home heating.

Of the many kinds of responses, superinsulation is proving to be the
simplest and most cost-effective.
Until the oil embargo of 1973 there was little interest in saving heat.
Architects, builders, money lenders, and home buyers gave the subject
little attention. Most of the existing stock of houses had little or no
insulation and even in the newest houses the insulation consisted, typically,
of only 3!- inches of fiberglass. Also, houses were loosely constructed :
cold air could leak in easily through cracks around windows, doors, and
sills. Warm indoor air could escape equally easily. On windy days in winter,
infiltration and exfiltration could account for as much as half of the house's
entire heat loss.
Why this widespread lack of concern? Because fuel was so cheap. The
prevailing attitude was: if the house loses heat rapidly, let the furnace run
harder and longer! When the price of fuel oil was 1O.e a gallon, this attitude
made sense-if one disregarded cold floors, drafts, and the accelerated
depletion of the world's oil reserves.
When the oil shortage arrived and fuel costs doubled and redoubled,
many architects responded, at first, by invoking solar energy. They exam
ined the designs of existing solar-heated houses and proposed a great
variety of new designs, most of which appeared-to the uninitiated-to
have great promise. Most of the early designs were of the active type;
some were of the passive type; a few were of hybrid design.
SOLAR-HEATED HOUSES

Active-Type Solar-Heated Houses

In 1973 there were only about 30 solar-heated houses in North America
[Shurcliff (8)]. Most of these were of the active type : solar radiation was
1
0362-1626/86/1022-0001$02.00

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SHURCLIFF

absorbed within roof-mounted glass-covered panels; the absorbed solar

energy, converted to heat by a black absorber, was carried by a forced
stream of water or air to a storage system in the basement and supplied
to the rooms whenever they became cold. Such systems are called active
because electrically powered pumps or fans are employed to transport the
heated water or air.
There was a near-universal belief that such systems were, or soon would
be, highly successful. Year by year better components were developed :
higher-transmittance glass collector-covers, more durable collector frames,
more efficient pumps and fans, more accurate and reliable control devices,
and better-insulated storage systems . Hopes were expressed that when
mass production got under way, the overall cost of such systems, per
square foot of collector area, might drop below the initial value (about
$ 12-$25) to about $5-$ 10.
Many prestigious corporations developed and began marketing col
lector panels and other components. Hundreds of amateurs with skills of
carpentry, pipe-fitting, etc, invented and built systems for their own houses.
Engineering-school faculty members and students made experiments and
wrote learned articles on how to optimize the designs . Even the federal
government stepped in with ambitious programs at the National Bureau of
Standards and elsewhere. Large grants were made to well-known industrial
corporations to launch demonstration projects.
But the euphoria gradually faded. Countless small troubles came to light.
Pipes corroded and leaked . Antifreeze solutions deteriorated. Controls
misbehaved. Air systems suffered from the need to employ large-diameter
well-insulated ducts (costly!) and large fans and blowers (expensive to
operate!); small air-leaks, hard to detect, could result in large heat losses.
Another blow was the introduction of government standards and the
requirement that the systems be guaranteed for five years. Manufacturers
then felt compelled to use better, more durable (and more costly) com
ponents and were forced to anticipate considerable no-charge repair work.
The result was that typical prices, instead of decreasing, increased. Overall
costs of complete installed systems became as high as $35-$50 per square
foot of collector-panel area.
A further blow was that the overall efficiency of collecting, storing, and
delivering the solar energy proved to be lower than expected. The average
day-in, day-out efficiency proved to be far lower than the advertised values,
based on performance during sunny midday conditions. Many systems,
instead of providing a major fraction of the wintertime heat needed,
provided only a minor fraction. Some of the government-funded demon
stration projects demonstrated all too clearly what not to do.
As disillusionment grew, many collector manufacturers withdrew from

SUPERINSULATED HOUSES

the field. Others struggled along, losing money year after year. Few made
satisfactory profits. Although several companies have found how to make
high-performance durable systems that are cost-effective in certain appli
cations [Rabl (5)], the enthusiasm of architects and builders for active solar
heating has diminished. For a while the preferred solar heating design has
been the passive type.

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Passive-Type Solar-Heated Houses

Passive solar heating, almost unheard of 15 years ago, gained rapidly in
popularity in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and by 1986 there were more
than 50,000 passive solar houses. In a direct-gain passive solar house,
extra-large south windows admit solar radiation directly to the south
rooms, warming the floors and walls, which have been made massive
enough to store much heat gathered during the sunny day for use at night.
Such systems can be very simple, with no moving parts: no fans or pumps.
Usually there are no ducts, pipes, or controls. Occupants of such houses
can demonstrate, proudly, that their south rooms are comfortably warm
(or even too warm) even on the coldest days in winter, provided the sun
is shining .
Some of the earliest direct-gain houses were successful, but many were
disappointing. If the designer attempted to supply only a small fraction of
the wintertime heat need, performance was often excellent. But if, in h is
fervor to achieve as much as 60-80% solar heati ng, he provided an
especially large area of south-facing windows, many troubles arose, includ
ing overheating on wintertime sunny days, tremendous heat-loss on cold
nights (with need for much auxiliary heat), and general overheating in
summer. Also, the large window area often resulted in discomfort from
glare and in fading of carpets and upholstery.
Many designers tried a modified approach, called indirect-gain passive
solar heating. They interposed, between south glazing and south rooms, a
massive wall, for example a 12-inch-thick concrete wall. Such a Trombe
wall absorbs the solar radiation, becomes warm, retains much heat until
evening, and transmits some heat to the rooms throughout the night.
Extremes of heat and cold in the rooms are avoided. The system is simple
and durable. A drawback is that the large black wall blocks the house
occupants' finest (south) view . Another drawback is that there is no easy
way of controlling the rate of heat flow from wall to room: no way to
speed the flow when the room is too cold, no way to slow the flow when
the room is already too warm.
Some other designers exploited greenhouses and sunspaces, attached to
the south sides of houses. Such adjuncts, in effect walk-in, live-in solar
collectors, can receive and store much solar energy and can supply some

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SHURCLIFF

heat to the adjacent rooms. The added cost, often $10,000-$20,000, is

justified if the occupants wish to grow their own green vegetables through
out most of the year or enjoy lounging in a sunbathed room [Booth (2),
Shapiro (6)].
The engineering understanding of passive-system performance gradually
improved, culminating in a mammoth treatise prepared by a large group
at the government-financed Los Alamos National Laboratory. Called
Passive Solar Heating Analysis, this 1984 book by Balcomb et al (1)
presents a wealth of practical rule-of-thumb data on literally thousands of
varieties of passive solar houses situated almost anywhere in the United
States or Canada . A rchitects familiar with the book can design almost any
kind of passive solar house with the assurance that it will perform well
and provide at least 50-70% of the wintertime heat need . However, an
auxiliary heating system will still be needed for use in long cold cloudy
spells; occasional overheating may occur, especially in the autumn when
outdoor temperatures may be high and the sun is so low in the sky that
eaves fail to provide shading ; and the architect is constrained as regards
orientation and layout of rooms and windows and the disposition of
thermal masses such as concrete floors, masonry partition walls, and water
filled tanks.

Hybrid-Type Solar-Heated Houses

Some designers, hoping to overcome some of the limitations of passive
solar houses, have introduced one or more small fans or blowers. These
may (a) help transfer heat from the primary solar-absorption site to a
storage site, (b) help recall the heat from storage, or (c) increase room-to
room circulation of air so that south rooms do not become too warm and
north rooms too cold . Such hybrid systems are usually successful ; comfort
is increased at negligible added cost. A disadvantage is that the system is
crippled by any failure of the electric supply ; but such failures are rare.
A few pioneers have devised hybrid schemes that provide, through the
combination of solar heat and intrinsic heat (from such sources as cooking
stoves, electric lights, and human bodies), 90-100% of the wintertime heat
need. An example is Shrewsbury House, in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts;
this house, designed by N. B. Saunders and completed in 1982, contains
no furnace, no electrical heater, no wood stove; all of the heat needed is
supplied by the sun and intrinsic sources. Operation is almost fully auto
matic. There is no overheating even in summer; a thermally stratified
under-floor bin of stones stores heat and cold simultaneously (in upper
and lower parts, respectively) with the result that room overheating can
be counteracted even though the solar collection system is, by ordinary
standards, oversize. Whereas most solar houses provide a "floor" but no

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SUPERINSULATED HOUSES

"ceiling" on room temperature, this house provides both floor and ceiling ;
room temperature is "clamped" within the desired range (about 69-72F
in winter, about 70-79F in summer). The house contains so many unusual,
simple, and nicely balanced features that a complete account necessarily
constitutes a full-length book [Shurcliff (12)] .
But even hybrid solar houses have limitations. Performance suffers if
the house orientation is far off-south or if nearby buildings or trees block
the sun's rays. To optimize the storage and distr ibution of solar heat the
designer may feel obliged to select certain orientations and sizes of rooms
and to limit the number of interior doors (closed doors may greatly reduce
the flow of warm air from south rooms to north rooms). He may feel
obliged to specify floors of concrete and may instruct the occupants not
to cover the floors with carpets. Keeping the rooms cool on sunny summer
days may be difficult unless air conditioners are used.
SUPERINSULATED HOUSES: INTRODUCTION
AND DEFINITION

In about 1980 a whole new approach to fuel saving came to the attention
of United States and Canadian architects. Called superinsulation, this
approach provided a high degree of comfort in winter and summer,
reduced fuel consumption by 75-95% relative to conventional houses,
allowed the architect great flexibility of house design, and increased con
struction costs by only a few percent.
The method was announced and explained in talks at building-con
struction conferences and, in 1980, in one full-length book [Shurcliff ( lO)].
Enthusiasm spread rapidly, and by 1986 several tens of thousands of
superinsulated houses were in routine use. The number of such houses has
more than doubled each year. In some colder regions of the contiguous
United States and in the colder provinces of Canada the new method now
completely dominates house construction practice.

Definition
Although there is no universally accepted definition of a superinsulated
house, the following definition is representative. A superinsulated house
is one that (a) receives only a modest amount of solar energy (for example,
has a south-facing window area not exceeding 8% of the floor area), and
(b) is so well-insulated and so airtight that, throughout most of the winter,
it is kept warm solely by the modest amount of solar energy received
through the windows and by intrinsic heat, that is, heat from miscellaneous
sources within the house. Little auxiliary heat is needed: less than 1 5 % as
much as is required in typical houses of comparable size built before 1974.

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Examples of miscellaneous heat sources within houses are: stoves for

cooking, domestic hot water systems, clothes washing machines, clothes
dryers, electric lights, dishwashing machines, human bodies, television and
radio sets, refrigerators, and other electrical devices (in the kitchen, living
areas, workshop, etc) .
Typical estimates of the amount of intrinsic heat produced per day
in a household of two adults and two children are: from human bodies,
30,000 Btu ; from the cooking stove, 20,000 Btu; from all other sources,
mainly electrical equipment, 70,000 Btu. Total : about 120,000 Btu. The
70,000-Btu component will, of course, become lower as today's electrical
equipment is replaced by equipment that is more energy-efficient (but the
decrease may be offset by an increase in the number of electrical devices
used).
Auxiliary heat means heat from a system installed specifically for heating
room air. Such systems include oil and gas furnaces, electric space heaters,
heat pumps, and wood-burning stoves.
The 8% limit on south window area is appropriate because, if the area
is much greater, the heat loss on cold nights may be large and the solar
energy intake on sunny days may make the rooms too hot.
The 15% limit on auxiliary heat (relative to comparable-size pre-1974
houses) was chosen because a house that conforms to this limit can get
through the winter fairly tolerably even if auxiliary h eat is cut off entirely.
Specifically, the house will never cool down to 32F; pipes will never freeze
and will never have to be drained; and faucets, sinks, toilets, tubs, etc will
continue to operate normally. Furthermore, it would take only a little
additional heat, as from a wood stove or one or two portable electric
heaters, to keep such a house fairly comfortable even when fuel supplies
are cut off.
In summary, the basic strategy of superinsulation is to make the house
so well-insulated and so airtight-so conserving of heat-that it is kept
warm almost entirely by heat that is received informally and is free.
Some architects object to the word superinsu/ation. They point out that
it fails to suggest the importance of airtightness. In fact, insulation and
airtightness are approximately equally important. Some writers use the
terms micro-load, self-sufficient, or energy-conserving, but none of these
terms is fully satisfactory.
ORIGINS OF SUPERINSULATION

In the United States the first group to undertake large-scale exploration,

development, and promotion of energy-conserving houses was a group of
engineers working at the Small Homes Council of the University of Illinois.

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SUPERINSULATED HOUSES

Prominent in this group were Professors W. S. Harris, R . A . Jones, W. L .

Shick, and S. Konzo . I n the 1940s they began analyzing heat losses from
houses, and by the early 1970s they had completed investigations proving
the great cost-effectiveness of (a) employing much thicker insulation, (b)
greatly increasing airtightness, and (c) placing a large proportion of the
window area on the south side of the house. They then created a detailed
house design that included all the new features needed . They tried to
persuade the US Energy Research and Development Agency to build such
a house, but in vain ; the agency was then under the spell of active solar
heating.
In 1976, with the aid of computers, the Illinois group proved that its
proposed house, called Lo-Cal House, would need only one third as much
auxiliary heat as the so-called well-insulated designs then being promoted
by the US Department of Housing and Urban Affairs. A formal report
on the Lo-Cal design and its underlying rationale was published in 1979
by Shick et al (7). The Illinois group's ideas greatly influenced the Canadian
group that was designing the Saskatchewan Energy Conserving House
a house that was soon constructed and found to need practically no
auxiliary heat. The ideas were embraced also by Eugene Leger, who was
planning his East Pepperell (Massachusetts) House, which was completed
in 1979 and was found to require less than $50 worth of gas heat per year
[Shurcliff (10)] .
Meanwhile, working independently near Tupper Lake in New York
state, R. P. Bentley in the mid- 1970s had built a superinsulated house
employing a special stressed-skin (built-up beam) type of exterior wall.
At about the same time Bruce Brownell, in Edinburgh, New York, had
developed a superinsulated house that stored solar heat in a thick bed of
sand beneath the lowest floor. Both inventors found their houses to per
form well, to be simple to operate and durable, and to cost little more than
conventional houses [Shurcliff ( 10)] . Soon thereafter the use of super
insulation in Alaska was pioneered by Edward McGrath, A. R. Carlson,
and B. Roggasch; here too, heating bills were reduced to near-negligible
magnitude.
By 1982 there were several construction groups enthusiastically employ
ing designs somewhat similar to that of the Lo-Cal House, and by 1986
the enthusiasm for superinsulation had spread across the United States and
Canada. Hundreds of builders were hard at work building superinsulated
houses. Thousands of persons flocked to the two-day seminars arranged
by the publishers of the newly established superinsulation newsletters
Superinsulated Buildings Newsletter and Energy Design Update. Additional
thousands flocked to training sessions arranged by Canadian government
agencies . The earliest books on superinsulation were superseded by an

SHURCLIFF

advanced book, The Superinsulated Home Book, by 1. D . N. Nisson and

Gautam Dutt (4).

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RAPID ADVANCE OF THE TECHNOLOGY

In the last five years much progress has been made in superinsulated house
design . Some improvements provide better performance ; others simplify
construction and reduce costs.
Many different wall-frame designs have been tried out, many different
types of insulation have been used, and many approaches to securing
airtightness have been explored . Although all of the variants appear to
have been successful in providing good performance, opinions differ widely
as to which schemes are simplest and least costly . A likely conclusion is
that different methods suit different climates, different availabilities of
skilled labor, and different local costs o f lumber. Also, builders who rely
almost 100% on on-site construction have different preferences from those
who use factory-built subassemblies.
The commonest type of design employed in the United States and
Canada in the early 1980s was the type promoted by Harold Orr and
others at the Division of Building Research of the Canadian National
Research Council, assisted by faculty members of the D epartment of
Mechanical Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan .
I n 1984 a different approach, offering several possible advantages, was
widely promoted by J. W. Lstiburek and J. K. Lischkoff of Building Energy
Design Corporation, Toronto, Canada (3).
Clearly, further improvements are in prospect and will make an already
highly successful technology even more successful .
PERFORMANCE

The wintertime thermal performance of a typical superinsulated house in

the northern contiguous United States or southern Canada is excellent. In
particular,
1. The typical annual heat requirement on the auxiliary heating system is
so small that the annual cost is almost negligible compared to the main
household expenses. The annual heating bill is about $150-$250 if the
heat is supplied by an oil furnace, less if the furnace burns gas, more if
electrical heat is used.
2. The occupants benefit from the absence of drafts, cold floors, and cold
spots near windows .
3. Because the south windows are of modest size, little or no sunny-day
overheating occurs.

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SUPERINSULA TED

HOUSES

4. Anxiety as to possible failure of the auxiliary heating system is minimal

because the rate of cool-down is so low (a fraction of a degree per
hour) that the house can easily ride through a 24-hour period with no
auxiliary-heat input.
5. Thanks to the use of an air-to-air heat-exchanger, humidity tends to
remain in the desirable 40-60% range and there is a steady inflow of
fresh air (at, typically, 50-150 cubic feet per minute, or about a half
house volume of fresh air per hour).
6. Little outdoor noise penetrates into the house .
7. Danger from fire is greatly reduced, especially if there is no furnace or
wood stove.
8 . If there is no oil or gas furnace, the smells of oil and gas are absent and
all parts of the basement may be clean and clear for use as workroom,
playroom, or the like.
Conservationists endorse superinsulation because of the saving of fossil

fuel and the reduction in furnace smoke. Governments endorse it for these
same reasons and also because (a) the amount of oil imported from foreign
lands is reduced (the balance of payments is improved), (b) persons who
cannot quite afford to buy and heat a house of conventional type can
afford to buy and heat a superinsulated house, and (c) the building industry
is stimulated.
An important-and often overlooked-advantage of superinsulation is
that house orientation is not critical. There is no need for the house to
face south or within 25 degrees of south. Almost any facing direction is
acceptable-an important advantage where street orientation is peculiar
or where the main view at a given house site is in some far-from-south
direction. Also the presence of nearby tall trees or houses does not greatly
hurt the performance of a superinsulated house (but can seriously hurt the
performance of a passively solar-heated house).
In summer a superinsulated house is easily kept cool, as explained in a
later section. Often no air-conditioning is needed. If it is needed, a single
moderate-size conditioner may suffice to keep the entire house cool.
What is the additional cost of making a house superinsulated? Estimates
range from 10% to 0%. Builders experienced in the new techniques find
the additional cost to be negligible, or nearly so . The cost of the extra
insulation and the vapor barrier is nearly offset by the omission. of a
furnace, chimney, oil tank, and heat distribution system.
The financial benefits include, besides the low annual heating bill, (a)
the great attraction of the house (because of added comfort and low
heating bills) to possible renters, and (b) the attraction to possible buyers.
Agencies that lend money for house mortgages look with favor on such
houses because, thanks to the low annual heating cost, the owner is

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SHURCLIFF

especially likely to be able to make his monthly payments on time. Some

agencies allow the house buyer to take out a mortgage of higher value
than is normally considered permissible-and thus purchase a superior
house-because of the greater ease of making payments (thanks to the low
heatirig cost).

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PROMOTION

In the early 1980s scores of architects and builders eagerly embraced

superinsulation, attempted to improve the design and construction
methods, and publicized the added comfort and reduced heating cost. A
few universities, notably the University of Saskatchewan, joined in the
research and development effort. Several solar heating and conservation
periodicals helped inform the public of the merits of superinsulation.
Various government groups participated in the promotion. The United
States government gave some assistance, and a few of the states have been
active.
By far the strongest governmental support has been by Canada. In 1984,
acting th rough its Department of Energy, Mines, and Resources, the
Canadian government launched a massive R-2000 program designed to
encourage builders and the buying public to embrace superinsulation. This
program, backed by $100,000,000 in funding,
1. encouraged improvements in superinsulation techniques,
2. established standards of excellence of superinsulation, general air
tightness, and prevention of flow of moisture into cold within-wall
regions,
3. ran two-day free training sessions on superinsulation techniques,
4. offered free technical reviews and expected-performance evaluations of
builders' proposed designs,
5. provided a certification service for buildings meeting the standards,
6. gave a $5000 award to each builder on completion of his first house
meeting the standards and a $1500 award on completion of the second
such house,
7 . gave great publicity, through newspapers, radio, and television, to the
merits of superinsulation.
The builder was required to:
1. have a technical representative attend an official training session,
2. submit a proposed design (before start of construction) for evaluation
and approval,
3. permit extensive monitoring of the thermal performance of the house,

SUPERINSULATED HOUSES

11

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4 . allow visitors to i nspect the house during certain hours each week, for
one month.
Prospective house buyers benefited from having an authoritative certi
fication that the house was well-insulated and tightly built and that the
annual heating bills would be very low.
Builders benefited from receiving free instruction and advice and from
receiving a certificate that had great appeal to buyers.
The R-2000 program enjoyed broad assistance from industry, from
private institutions such as the Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Con
ditioning Institute of Canada, and also from various home builders'
associations.
DESIGN

In this report space does not permit a detailed account of superinsulated

house design. For such an account the reader should refer to the most
recent books [for example, Nisson & Dutt (4)] and to periodicals such
as Energy Design Update (Cahners Publishing Co. , Boston, Mass .), Pro
gressive Builder (Harrisville, New Hampshire), New England Builder
(East Haven, Vermont), and other periodicals dealing with housing and
conservation. Here only the main design features are i ndicated.
The five main ingredients of superinsulated house design are (a) thick
insulation, (b) airtight construction, (c) prevention of moisture migration
into cold regions within the walls, and other regions where much con
densation could occur, (d) optimum sizing of window areas, and (e) a
steady supply of fresh air. Note that the term superinsulated is overly
narrow, betokening only one of these ingredients.

Insulation
The entire shell of a superinsulated house is well-insulated. The insulation
on the attic floor is made especially thick, partly because of the familiar
rule that heated air rises but mainly because the attic floor is large and
unobstructed and accordingly installing the i nsulation here is simplicitly
itself: just lay it on the floor, or spray it on the floor. In cold climates such
a floor may be covered with 6- 12 i nches of fiberglass or with equivalent
amounts of blown-in wood-fiber. [Fiberglass batts provide a thermal resis
tance of about 3.0 (ft2 OF hr/Btu), called R-3, per inch of thickness. This
means that a one-inch-thick layer of such material will transmit 1/3 Btu
per square foot of area per hour if one face of the material is hotter than
the other face by one Fahrenheit degree.] Thus a 12-inch-thick layer on
the attic floor provides about R-36; the flooring and roof add to this, so

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SHURCLIFF

that the overall insulation above the main rooms may be about R-40 or
R-45.
The R-values ascribed to insulation are often approximate only. The
true R-value of fiberglass depends on the extent to which the material is
compressed or expanded. It depends also on temperature, being greater
the lower the temperature. The same remarks apply to blown chopped
fiberglass and to blown wood fiber. Plates of extruded polystyrene
(StyrofoamTM, for example) have greater R-value when the temperature is
reduced, but may have lower R-value some years after manufacture
because the "blowing gas," freon, gradually leaks away and is replaced by
air, and air is a more efficient transporter of heat than freon is. The
same applies to urethane foam and isocyanurate foam (Thermax for
example): the R-value increases when the material is cooled and tends to
decrease with time. The R-v alues of such high-quality foam plates range
from 5 to 8 (ft2 OF hrjBtu) per inch of thickness.
Exterior walls also are heavily insulated, usually with fiberglass batts,
foam plates, or blown wood-fiber. Because the walls are obstructed by
windows and doors, installing insulation is a little complicated, and com
monly the R-value chosen is less than that of the attic insulation . In cold
climates, walls are extra-thick and R-values of 25--45 are common.
Basement walls are usually insulated with two to four inches of extruded
polystyrene (example: Styrofoam), which is practically water-and-mois
ture-proof and lasts almost indefinitely . Usually it is placed on the exterior
face of the concrete basement wall; it may extend all the way to the bottom
of the w all, or (with some s aving of material and money) it may extend
only about two feet downward with a terminal outward flare; the flare
effectively adds many tons of earth to the insulated region and thus adds
to the thermal mass of the house.
Initially, fears were expressed that the use of such insulation would
permit the earth immediately adjacent to the foundations to freeze, and
that when it froze it would expand, press strongly against the basement
wall, and perhaps crack it. Experience has shown that usually no trouble
anses.
Sometimes the builder installs the insulatio n on the basement-wall inner
face. The insulation is then protected from outside threats such as bur
rowing rodents, insects, tree roots, and frost-heave. But the concrete itself
may become so cold that when any moist basement air reaches it, moisture
will condense on it and will eventually form puddles. Another disadvantage
of applying insulation to the basement-wall inner face is that the walls
then do not contribute to thermal mass.
Sometimes a two-inch-thick plate of insulating foam is installed beneath
'
the basement floor. What about houses that have concrete floor slabs and

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SUPERINSULATED HOUSES

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no basement? Some builders install foam plates beneath the entire slab;
others install such plates along the slab periphery only. Many houses have
crawl spaces and outdoor air is allowed to circulate through them; thick
insulation, such as six inches of fiberglass or four inches of foam plates, is
installed beneath the floors of the living rooms.
Many manufacturers of exterior doors sell doors that are well-insulated,
having R-values of 10-15. Such doors are highly cost-effective. Typical
doors of a decade ago had R-values of only 1-3 and allowed much heat
to escape .
What are the best-compromise R-values of walls, ceilings, etc? There is
no one best set. Different values are appropriate to different conditions of
coldness, cloudiness, wind, size of house, ventilation rate, thermal mass,
materials cost, labor cost, and auxiliary heat cost.
A set ofrepresentative ranges of R-values has been arrived at by Howard
Faulkner, architect and superinsulation expert at the University of
Southern Maine. The recommended values, applicable to cold regions
in the northern contiguous United States, are as follows: exterior wall,
R-35 to R-45; attic and/or ceiling, R-55 to R-70; floor over crawl space,
R-25 to R-35; foundation wall, R-lO to R-30; floor slab, R-5 to R-20;
exterior door, R- lO to R- 15.
How does the designer arrange for the walls to be thick enough to
accommodate very thick insulation? In past years the use of studs 3! in.
wide has been standard practice ; and accordingly the space available for
insulation was only 3! in. thick. One obvious solution is to use wider
studs, such as 2 x 6 inch studs. Another solution is to use two sets of 2 x 4
studs offset so as to provide a space two or three times the usual width. A
third solution is to use a single set of 2 x 4 studs, fill the 3!-inch space
with fiberglass, then apply a 2-inch layer of high-R-per-inch rigid foam;
apply it either on the outside, to serve as insulating sheathing, or to the
inside, supported by 2-inch furring strips. Very recently, several other
strategies have been developed: prefabricated 4- or 5-inch-thick assemblies
of plywood-foam-plywood are used; the assemblies are joined easily and
snugly by means of bolts or splines; studs and applied insulation are not
needed.
The overall R-value of a wall or floor etc is reduced by the presence of
wooden timbers (such as studs, joists, or window-frame members) or any
other thermally conducting member situated where it can form a "thermal
bridge" that, to some extent, short-circuits the insulation . If there are any
accidental gaps in the insulation, the overall R-value is reduced further. It
is a waste of time and money to install very thick insulation and then
degrade the overall performance by installing thermal bridges or leaving
gaps in the insulation.

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There is a simple but expensive method of detecting poorly insulated

areas of finished walls, roofs, etc. One employs a thermograph, or infrared
scanner, which provides an instant view, or picture, indicative of rate of
heat loss. If, during a cold spell, the device is stationed outdoors 30 ft.
from, say, the north face of a house and is aimed at that face, the operator
obtains a crude picture of the face and examines the picture for bright
spots. Any bright spot is indicative of an intense flux of longwave (360-micrometer) infrared radiation, which is the type of radiation that is
emitted by nearly all materials (wood, brick, painted metal, glass, etc) that
are warm. On a cold day most of the outer-face area of a well-insulated
wall is cold and therefore emits little such radiation. Typical windows are
not well-insulated ; the outermost glass surfaces may be fairly warm and
thus emit much such radiation and, in the thermograph images, appear
bright. Likewise if there is a gap in the insulation of the wall proper, the
wall surface here will be abnormally warm and will show up in the image
as a bright area.
Thermographs are expensive. Simpler devices, called infrared line scan
ners, arc available; thcy produce no true images but merely supply a
varying sound and/or meter reading as the device i s swung so as to scan
along the wall in question. They cost less by an order of magnitude than
thermographs.
The persons who install insulation in walls make great efforts to see that
the space available for insulation is entirely filled by it. If there arc slender
empty regions (voids), circulation of air may occur here; warm air from
the warm face of the wall may flow to the cold face, thus partly defeating
the insulation. Also, steps are taken to see that no outdoor air can find
its way into the insulation to cause convective cooling there; the usual
procedure is to install, in the outer region of the wall, a plastic sheet that
is impervious to air. A commonly used material is a duPont-spun olefin
called TyveFM which, while preventing air flow, allows some transmission
of water vapor, so that moisture that threatens to accumulate within the
wall can find its way to the outdoors.
Great attention is given to reducing heat loss through windows. A
typical single-glazed window has an R-value of only about 1 ; thus the heat
loss here, per square foot, is about 30-50 times the heat loss per square
foot of a superinsulated wall . Double glazing has twice the R-value ( R-2) ;
triple or quadruple glazing is far better yet and is well worth the extra
expense in houses in very cold locations. Further benefit results from use
of glass sheets of new ("low-e") type that emit very little far-infrared
radiation, or use of special mylar films that have low-e coatings. The
combined use of such sheets with a low-conductance gas (argon or xenon)
between the sheets can yield R-values as high as 8. These new techniques,

SUPERINSULATED HOUSES

15

not yet fully developed and still expensive, have great promise; they may
greatly ease the restriction on maximum amount of window areas per
missible in superinsulated houses in cold locations.
An alternative to the use of high-R windows is the use, at night, ofhigh-R
window coverings: thermal shades or shutters. An enormous variety of
such devices is now available, with R-values ranging from 2 to 12 (Shurcliff
(9)]. However, the better ones are expensive ($6-$15 per square foot,
installed), may be cumbersome in appearance, and require occupant atten
tion twice a day.
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Airtight Construction
Builders of superinsulated houses take pains to build houses that are nearly
airtight. Decades ago little attention was given to air in-leak or out-leak
(together called infiltration), and, typically, one third to one half of the
wintertime heat loss from the house was the result of infiltration. The air
leakage rates were high enough, typically, to produce one complete change
of house air every hour or half-hour-or, on windy days, every quarter
hour. Such rates of fresh air input are three to ten times the rate needed
to ensure indoor comfort and health.
Today's builders use refined techniques to reduce infiltration rates
almost to zero . Rates as low as one complete air change per two hours or
even per ten hours are common; they are so low that special equipment is
required to provide the amount of fresh air needed, as explained in a later
section. Much use is made of caulking materials to fill cracks around sills,
window frames, etc. All wall penetrations for pipes and electric cables
are made very tight. Even basements and attics are tightly built (unless
deliberately vented to allow moisture to escape).
The task of ensuring tightness is made easier by the availability of
equipment that can evaluate the tightness quickly and accurately. Called
blower doors, these devices permit the construction workers to find out
just how tight the house is; and, when additional caulking has been
completed, they can measure the improvement accurately. By use of smoke
candles or other means they can pinpoint the locations of air leaks . Some
contractors encourage healthy competitions among thcir construction
crews, to see which crew can build the tightest house. Today, experienced
crews find it easy to make houses that are almost tighter than need be.

Prevention of Moisture Migration

The most troublesome task in superinsulated house construction has been
to prevent the migration of room-air moisture into the exterior walls.
Moisture is continually generated in the indoor air by showers, cooking,
and breathing. In a typical house 10-20 gallons of water are evaporated

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into room air per 24-hour day. In the houses of 20 or 30 years ago, no
significant build-up of moisture occurred; the rate of air-change was so
great that the moisture was promptly dissipated to the outdoors. In today's
tight houses, though, build-up of moisture in room air is a serious threat
in winter. (A later section explains how excess moisture can be eliminated
by air-to-air heat-exchangers.)
The threat is very real even with room air at moderate relative humidity
( RR), such as 40%. If such air finds its way deep into a tight, well-insulated
exterior wall, it will reach wall components that are cold enough to cause
some of the moisture in the air to condense. For example, condensation
will occur in 70F, 40%-RR air that encounters a surface colder than
44F. Surfaces that are even colder may cause frost to form-frost that
will eventually melt and form puddles. Two harmful consequences of
condensation are 1. wooden components of the wall (studs, sheathing, etc)
may remain wet for many months each winter and may rot, and 2. the
R-value of the insulation is reduced.
Migration of moisture into walls, ceilings, etc, is avoided by the use of
a vapor barrier, usually a 0.006-inch-thick sheet of polyethylene. Such
sheets are applied to all of the boundary surfaces of the living region of
the house: exterior walls, ceilings, etc . They are applied also to the walls
and floor of the heated basement, if any. Usually the sheet applied to a
wall is applied within the wall, so as to be protected from daylight and
from mechanical impact. Often it is situated a half-inch from the indoor
exposed surface of the wall, i.e. directly behind a half-inch-thick sheet of
gypsum board. Sometimes it is situated three or four inches from the
exposed surface, to allow room for within-wall pipes, electrical wires, etc.
Always the situation is such that at least two thirds of the insulation is
outside the sheet ; this ensures that the sheet itself will never become very
cold and no moisture will condense on it.
Construction supervisors have devised detailed techniques for ensuring
the complete integrity of the set of vapor-barrier sheets. There must be no
gaps between sheet edges, no gaps at window or door frames, no gaps at
sills, headers, or ceiling-or-wall penetrations for wires, water pipes, or
vent pipes. The techniques, worked out after painful experiences in first
attempts at superinsulation, involve much use of sheet overlap and also
caulking with sealants that retain their elasticity indefinitely. No aspect of
.superinsulated house construction has been the subject of so much thought
and discussion as the proper installation of vapor barriers. There is always
the worry that if a gap occurs in the vapor barrier, and gypsum board is
installed and hides the gap, the architect and house owner may remain
entirely unaware of the defect until, a few years later, rotting of timbers is
well under way.
Some builders use vapor barriers consisting of the aluminum-foil cover-

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SUPERINSULATED HOUSES

17

ing of commercially available rigid foam boards, such as isocyanurate

foam boards (example: Thermax). If there are no tears in the aluminum
foil and if the gaps between boards are well sealed this technique can be
successful. A Canadian group, led by J. W. Lstiburek (3), uses no plastic
sheet or aluminum foil at all, but, instead, m akes use of the gypsum boards
themselves and a special moisture-proof paint; the building design is
modified so that the gypsum boards join one another edge-to-edge tightly;
special sealing strips, or gaskets, are used. The method, called the
Advanced Drywall Approach (ADA), has been successful and has the
merit that the surfaces that block the migration of moisture are fully visible
at all times (for inspection) and fully accessible (for any repair needed) .

Window Area
Although the window area of a superinsulated house is not large, it is large
enough to provide, in winter, a considerable fraction (40-80%, say) of the
heat needed. Thus in a sense a superinsulated house is a special type of
direct-gain passive solar house. Typically, the total area of the south-facing
windows is 5-8% of the floor area. Windows on the other three sides of
the house comprise, collectively, another 5-8%. The area of the west
windows is kept small for two reasons : 1. such windows receive intense
solar radiation late in the day when the rooms are already warm enough,
and 2. the radiation received here is so nearly horizontal that eaves, even
if wide, provide little or no shading.
Usually the sills of the south-facing windows are kept fairly high so that,
in summer, even the lowest portions of the windows will be shaded by the
wide eaves.
If the windows h ave especially high thermal resistance-for example,
if they are triple- or quadruple-glazed or employ far-infrared-reflecting
coatings-nighttime heat loss here is so small that use of a somewhat
larger window area is permissible. Alternatively, the provision of nighttime
thermal shades makes it permissible to have a larger window area.
Should the floors or walls that directly receive solar radiation via the
south windows be very massive-of concrete, for example-in order to
provide especially large thermal mass and reduce the diurnal fluctuations
in room-air temperature? No. Because the window area is modest (and
the solar energy intake likewise) the building's intrinsic mass (mass of
floors, gypsum-board wall covering, etc, amounting to 20-40 tons) is great
enough so that additional thermal mass is not needed.
The main difference between superinsulated houses and passive solar
houses is in the choice of area and slope of the south windows. In a passive
solar house the area is very large ; in extreme cases the entire south face
of the house is glazed. The amount of solar energy received is enormous,
which is very pleasing until the rooms begin to overheat. Often the windows

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extend from floor to ceiling, which renders eaves ineffective and may
require, on warm days, the deployment of reflective shades. In some houses
a large fraction of the south-facing glass is sloped, to increase the solar
energy intake; this can lead to acute overheating. On cold nights, large
window areas lose much heat and the rooms may become too cold. To
counter these tendencies the architect may provide large-area thermal
shades to be used at night and may employ walls and floors of concrete
or other massive material. In summer, overheating is a frequent threat;
much venting of hot air is required. The designer must provide one or
more large (20-40 square feet) vents situated high up, for hot-air outflow,
and one or more vents situated low down, for cooler-air inflow. Fly screens
may be needed, and perhaps protection from driving rain. The house
occupants must learn when to open the vents, and when to close them.
Obviously, venting is of little use if the outdoor air itself is excessively hot.
THE FRESH AIR PROBLEM

The Achilles heel of superinsulation is the threat that indoor air may
become polluted . If a superinsulated house has been built so tightly that
the natural rate of air change is only once per several -hours, it is likely
that the relative humidity (RH) will increase to unacceptable levels and
the same may be true of various bad-smelling gases and also radon, which
is odorless. The indoor atmosphere may be not only unpleasant but also
a threat to health.

Humidity
If the house occupants take many baths or long showers, or do much
cooking that involves the boiling of water, the relative humidity of room
air may increase greatly. For maximum comfort, wintertime indoor-air
RH should be in the neighborhood of 35-60%. In extremely cold weather
the RH should not greatly exceed 40%, otherwise condensation on double
glazed windows may occur. The obvious way to keep the RH below such
levels is to continuously expel humid indoor air and replace it with outdoor
air, which in winter contains very little moisture-only about 1/10 or 1/5
as much as 70F air at 50% RH contains. An alternative would be to
employ a dehumidifier; but such devices are powered by electricity and
thus are expensive to operate, and in addition they are ineffective with
respect to radon and other noxious gases.

Radon
In the last few years public health experts have found that some tightly
built houses have significant concentrations of the rare gas radon, a decay

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SUPERINSULATED HOUSES

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product of the radioactive elements uranium and radium [Shurcliff (1 1)].

Radon itself is radioactive and gives off polonium particles which can
become trapped in the lungs and may there produce radioactive
damage that can cause cancer. It is estimated that each year about 20,000
persons in the United States die as a result of cancer attributable to radon
in indoor air. In most parts of the country the danger is negligible; but in
regions that contain radioactive ores (granites, especially), the danger is
real. Usually the radon migrates upward from the ground, enters the
basement through cracks and at penetrations for water-supply pipes and
drain pipes, and finds its way into the rooms. Small detectors of radon
have been developed and can indicate whether, in a given house, it presents
a threat.
Radon build-up can be prevented by sealing the basement space from
the ground or by continually ventilating the basement. Another good
solution is to ventilate the living area of the house, preferably by means
of equipment that recovers most of the heat from the outgoing air.

Other Pollutants
Other pollutants commonly present in houses are
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide from stoves and fireplaces,

formaldehyde from plywood, particleboard, adhesives, and insulation,
sprays used for killing flying or crawling insects,
smoke particles from cigarettes, stoves, and fireplaces,
various gaseous oxides of nitrogen and sulfur,
particles of lead oxide and asbestos.

Shortcomings of Natural Ventilation

It is easy enough to ventilate the living area of a house by using windows.
But there are many drawbacks: 1. the occupants may fail to open windows,
or may open them too little or too much, 2. the rate of fresh air inflow
depends enormously on the speed and direction of the wind and depends
also on the difference between indoor and outdoor temperatures (chimney
effect), 3 . the heat in the outgoing air is wasted, 4. the incoming fresh air
may be very cold and may cause discomfort to persons in the path of this
air.
A small exhaust fan can provide a fixed rate of ventilation, but the
above-mentioned limitations 3 and 4 remain.

Air-to-Air Heat-Exchangers
The ideal way to ensure a fixed and known rate of ventilation is to employ
an air-to-air heat-exchanger, a device that contains one or more fans or

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blowers, brings in fresh air at a constant rate, expels stale air at the same
constant rate, and recovers most of the heat from the outgoing air. In such
a device the two airflo ws are in opposite directions, and accordingly the
available heat in the outgoing air is transferred to the incoming air with
high efficiency. Although such devices have been in use in industry for a
century, small devices designed for use in houses are relatively new.
There are two main types of air-to-air heat-exchangers : fixed-plate type
and rotary type. The former employs 20-50 fixed, parallel, thin plates,
usually of aluminum, separated by small airspaces ; warm stale air passes
from the house via airspaces 1, 3, 5, etc, while cold fresh air enters (in the
opposite direction) via airspaces 2, 4, 6, etc. In principle, the upper limit
on efficiency of heat transfer is 100% ; but in practice the efficiency is about
50-80%.
The rotary type employs a rotor, or wheel, that may be 16 inches in
diameter and consists of hundreds of turns of thin aluminum or plastic
ribbon, the successive turns being separated by airspaces about 0 .020 . 1 inch thick. The rotor is rotated at the rate of about 10 or 20 revolutions
per minute, with the result that any given sector of the rotor passes
successively in front of the stale air duct and the (counter-directed) fresh
air duct ; thus the sector successively takes up heat from one airstream
and, seconds later, delivers it to the other. Note that in such an exchanger
there is no need for heat to flow through anything ; also, if some of the air
passages become clogged, both airstreams are reduced equally; they
remain in balance and accordingly no pressurization or depressurization
of the house occurs. Again the heat transfer efficiency is about 50-80%.
Exchangers of small size (about the size of a small air conditioner) are
usually mounted in the wall of the living room and supply it with up to
100 cubic feet per minute (cfm) of fresh air, some of which finds its way,
through open doorways, to the kitchen, bathroom, and bedrooms.
Larger exchangers are mounted in a utility room, basement, or attic.
They receive fresh air via a duct 4--6 inches in diameter and deliver the
warmed fresh air, via similar ducts, to the living room and perhaps other
locations also. The stale air is collected from the kitchen and bathrooms,
is ducted to the exchanger, and thence is ducted to the outdoors. Of
course, the intake and outlet ports are kept well separated so that no cross
contamination will occur. The larger exchangers supply 100-250 cfm.
Such a device can be operated continuously throughout the winter, or
can be controlled by a timer so as to provide fresh air only at the times of
day when most needed, or can be controlled by a dehumidistat that turns
the equipment on (or turns it to higher-speed operation) whenever room
air humidity rises above a preselected value, such as 60% in mild weather

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SUPERINSULATED HOUSES

21

and 40% i n very cold weather. Typically any such control scheme ensures
a ventilation rate equivalent to about one half of a complete air change
per hour-a rate low enough to avoid large loss of heat yet high enough
to ensure good quality of indoor air.
A few types of rotary exchangers employ rotors that have been coated
with a desiccant. Such an exchanger recovers not only sensible heat but
also moisture ; that is, it recovers sensible heat and latent heat, together
called enthalpy. In houses that tend, even in winter, to be too dry, the
recovery of moisture from the outgoing stale air is highly desirable. A
special virtue of exchangers that employ desiccants is that the outgoing air
contains relatively little water and therefore the threat of frost formation
in the exchanger passages is greatly reduced.
Such devices have some drawbacks. The cost may be $500-$800, or
possibly twice this amount if an extensive set of ducts is needed. Operating
costs-about $40-$ 100 per winter-are appreciable. In very cold weather
some of the moisture in the outgoing stale air will become cold enough
(inside the exchanger) so that some moisture will condense, forming water
droplets and perhaps forming frost. The frost will cause partial blockage
of airflow unless a special defrost cycle is employed several times a day.
The exchangers contain air filters which may need to be cleaned or replaced
once or more a winter. If the two airstreams are not equalized, the house
will be under slight positive or negative pressure, which may interfere with
fireplace or gas stove drafts. The blowers produce some noise.
Nevertheless the exchangers normally perform well, ridding the house
of excessive levels of any and all pollutants. The defects present in early
model exchangers have now largely been eliminated, and more than a
dozen manufacturers are now selling thousands of high-performance
devices per year [Shurcliff ( 11)].
AUXILIARY HEATING SYSTEMS

Although a few very special superinsulated houses require no auxiliary

heat sources [Shurcliff ( 12)], nearly all superinsulated houses in cold
climates require some auxiliary heat during the coldest and/or cloudiest
periods of winter. What type of auxiliary heater is best? This subject has
been much debated, with no resulting consensus.
Electric auxiliary heat is ideal in many ways : low in first cost to the
homeowner, simple, clean, safe. It is also flexible : small heaters may be
placed in the several rooms and may be easily adjusted for maximum
comfort or maximum economy. Would such use of electricity increase the
peak load on the electric utilities? Not necessarily ; superinsulated houses

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cool down so slowly that their electrical heating needs could be satisfied
at delayed, off-peak hours. Of course, electric heat is expensive and may
soon become much more so.
Gas heat is cheap, and new small heaters that need no chimney-only
a small vent in a wall-have been developed. But gas heaters, if operated
incorrectly, may produce large quantities of pollutants ; superinsulated
houses are so tightly built that, whenever the windows remain shut and
there is no forced ventilation, concentrations of pollutants could become
dangerously high. Also, the discharge of combustion gases to the outdoors
can produce a small negative pressure in the room air, unless air is specially
ducted to the gas heater .
Oil furnaces can, of course, be used. But nearly all of the available
furnace models are much too large and thus would run only occasionally
and briefly, which makes for low efficiency. Again, special ducting of
outside air to the furnace may be necessary . Wood stoves have the obvious
drawbacks of creating the threat of indoor-air pollution and requiring the
ducting of outdoor air .
Heat pumps that draw their heat from outdoor air have the great
drawback that in very cold weather their efficiency is very low and electric
back-up heat is needed. However, heat pumps that draw their heat from
the ground or from deep wells have much promise ; they perform efficiently
and reliably regardless of outdoor temperature. Also, they can provide
cooling of room air in summer and supply heat to the domestic hot water
system. When and if the costs of such equipment are reduced, this approach
may be preferred .
At present all of the above-mentioned approaches are used. Perhaps in
the next few years a clear-cut winner will emerge.
SUMMERTIME COOLING

Keeping superinsulated houses cool in summer is relatively easy. Because

the sun is then high in the sky and superinsulated houses have wide eaves,
little solar radiation enters. Because the houses are well-insulated, little
heat from outdoor air can penetrate the walls . Thus, if the house is cool
in the early morning and windows are kept shut, the house may remain
cool until mid-evening ; by this time the outdoor air may have cooled, so
that by opening windows and/or turning on a whole-house exhaust fan
the occupants can cool the house adequately by the next morning . If the
outdoor temperature remains high day and night, this strategy will fail
and an air conditioner will be needed. The cooling load is so small that
one average-size air conditioner may suffice to keep the entire house cool .

SUPERINSULATED HOUSES

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DEVELOPMENTS IN COUNTRIES OVERSEAS

Canada and the United States are not the only countries that are rapidly
exploiting superinsulation. Sweden, which must import nearly all of the
fossil fuel it consumes, has pushed hard to persuade, or even compel,
the building industry and the public to adopt superinsulation. Rigorous
standards on insulation and airtightness have been adopted and very-Iow
interest loans are offered to assist the construction of houses meeting the
standards. Because the country is small and embraces only a narrow range
of climates, it has been possible to concentrate h ouse construction in a few
centrally located, large, highly mechanized factories. Modular houses,
covering a wide range of styles and room layouts, are built to order,
shipped in trucks, and then assembled on-site very quickly-in a few weeks
or, in some cases, a few days. Because the houses are of especially high
quality and have a variety of luxury features, and because the government
loans have such a low rate of interest, the public has eagerly bought such
houses. The low annual heating bills and high degree of thermal comfort
the year around are added inducements. By early 1986 efforts to sell
Swedish-built superinsulated houses in the United States were well under
way.
Japanese efforts to produce superinsulated houses are progressing and
Japan also may soon be marketing its houses in the United States.
The United States has such a great variety of climates, great range of
building-material availability, and great variety of labor practices that
there is no dominating centralization of house construction, no ' highly
automated facility for producing full-size houses.
In conclusion, superinsulation appears to be an outstandingly successful
strategy for building high-comfort, low-cost houses that require little heat
in winter and little cooling in summer. Passive solar heating may be
preferred by persons with special requirements, such as greenhouses, sun
spaces, or enormous window areas for view. In some circumstances active
solar heating may be the appropriate choice . But for persons whose main
goals are high comfort, low initial cost, and low operating cost, super
insulation appears to be the logical choice.
Literature Cited

1 . Balcomb, J. D., Jones, W. R., McFar

land. E. D., Wray, W. O. 1984. Passive
Solar Heating Analysis. Atlanta, Geor
gia : Am. Soc. Heating, Refrigerating
and Air-Conditioning Engineers. 820 pp.
2. Booth, D. 1 983. Sun/Earth Buffering

and Superinsulation. Canterbury, New

Hampshire : Community Builders . 230
pp.
3. Lstiburek, J. W., Lisehkoff, J. K. 1984.
A New Approach to Af
fordable Low
Energy House Construction. Edmonton,

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