{"id":7614,"date":"2022-05-07T10:55:34","date_gmt":"2022-05-07T08:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/era.archi\/?p=7614"},"modified":"2023-02-07T16:57:35","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T15:57:35","slug":"whats-a-thermal-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/era.archi\/en\/whats-a-thermal-bridge\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s a thermal bridge?"},"content":{"rendered":"

What’s a thermal bridge?<\/p>\n

\n

Why avoid thermal bridge is important?<\/p>\n

Why your positive house must be free of thermal bridges?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

May you don\u2019t know us yet, let\u2019s have a quick introduction: we are ERA architects.
\nActually, I am Esther Rovira, architect and passive house designer in Barcelona, Catalonia and Andorra for either passive houses, efficient houses and positive houses.
\nIn this post\u00a0\u2018What’s a thermal bridge?\u2019<\/em>, You will find our professional recommendation.
\nI hope it helps you!
\nLet’s go!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The 3nd must of a positive house is to avoid thermal bridges.
\nMay you’ve skipped the first and second, please check our post: ‘6 musts for a positive house’<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

What’s a thermal bridge?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That strange combination of words defines the connecting spots where your house is not insulated.
\n<\/span>If it\u2019s not insulated, it means there is a bridge to the outside temperature through that material\u2019s thermal transmittance. (Remember the U value?. If not just check <\/span>chapter Thermal behaviour of materials<\/span>).
\n<\/span>This is usually well understood by checking the cut view drawing of your positive house.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thermal bridge (right image)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

So, consider a middle slab connection with the fa\u00e7ade.
\nIf we taka a look at the image on the right we’ll see that the insulation\u00a0is only inside, then a piece of concrete is left without insulation.
\nThis piece of concrete is a bridge to the outside world and climate. Since concrete has a very high thermic transmittance, this piece of shown concrete will highly conduct the temperature on both sides. Then, if it\u2019s winter, the cold will break into your house through that piece of concrete not covered. And also the heat inside will go away through that spot.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

No thermal bridge (left image)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your positive house must avoid thermal bridges.
\nBeing fully insulated by a continuous layer of proper thickness insulation is the best way to prevent thermal bridges.\"what<\/p>\n

Let me tell you something that happened to me:
\n<\/strong>A desperate possible client called us with a project from another architect supposed to be designed as a sustainable home.
\nThey already had the Town Hall permits and were ready to start building.
\nThen when their architect sends them the final plans. For the very first time, the clients sees the side cut view of their \u2018supposed-to-be-sustainable\u2019<\/em> home. To their surprise, there was very little insulation and the connections were not solved properly, then in every connection there was a massive concrete thermal bridge.
\nThat client had to switch architects to redo the full construction project to make it sustainable (for real). They hired us, so we re-designed the construction system by redrawing the section view, redefining materials, calculating values with the passive simulator and solving all connections. The house resulted to be a certified passive house plus at the end!
\nThe clients were happy with their new healthy home at the end. However, they had to spend more money and time due to this change of architects.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our professional recommendation:
\n<\/strong>Ask your architect to show the construction section cut of your positive house to check if there are any cuts on the insulation layer.
\nIf there are, ask him to calculate the thermal bridge that this means to your loss of heat inside your home.
\nOr even better, avoid all these questions and just hire an architect that is also a passive house designer.
\nIt doesn’t have to be us, but PLEASE for the sake of your future mental health, hire a passive house architect.<\/p>\n

You may also be interested in:
\n<\/strong>Probably you\u2019ve heard of thermal bridges before when talking about windows.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Let\u2019s dig into windows now that you\u2019re warmed up: ‘Windows in positive houses’<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hope this post is helpful!<\/p>\n

Best of luck on positive house adventure.
\nSee you on the next post,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"architectBarcelona\"<\/p>\n

Esther Rovira Raurell<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
Architect in Barcelona<\/a>\u00a0#COAC 44234-8<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
Passive House Designer<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
Affiliated to the\u00a0International Passive House Association<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
Founder of\u00a0ERA architects<\/a>
\n<\/span>\u00a9 All rights reserved<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

P.S. Wanna get FREE tips for your project weekly?\u00a0Yas!<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>or follow us\u00a0on\u00a0Instagram<\/a>,\u00a0Pinterest<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0y\u00a0Facebook<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What’s a thermal bridge? Why avoid thermal bridge is important? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[355,138,629,142,623,630,628,634,635,165],"class_list":["post-7614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-passive-house-architect-barcelona","tag-architect-barcelona","tag-architect-passive-house-barcelona","tag-clt-house","tag-english-speaking-architect-barcelona","tag-passive-house-en","tag-passive-house-barcelona","tag-positive-house","tag-thermal-bridge","tag-thermal-bridge-passive-house","tag-wood-house"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat's a thermal bridge? - ERA architects<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 'What's a thermal bridge?' 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