Exterior wall composition tools

Architects and consultants who work with exterior wall design understand that the up-front carbon of the enclosure system often represents 15-20% of the building’s total embodied carbon. And, while the final wall design must respond to many criteria such as aesthetics, insulation, and control of moisture, the criteria of embodied carbon is difficult to gage in early design, as it often relies on life cycle assessments performed after the wall compositions have been established.

CECC has developed three early-design tools that can help to understand the embodied carbon of facades before modeling them and performing a life cycle assessment. One of the tools, WallCOMP© , allows the designer to choose the various layers in the wall composition, and gives results for total wall thickness, R-value, and embodied carbon for both the up-front stages (A1-A5) and the life-cycle stages (A-C). The second tool, WindowCOMP© , allows the designer to choose different window types and determine embodied carbon results similar to WallCOMP. The third tool, EnclosureSUM© , combines the results of the first two tools for a final result for each facade elevation.

These early design tools do not replace the need for life cycle assessments of the enclosure, but enable early-design decisions that can result in lower embodied carbon of the exterior enclosure.