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Codes and Compliance

Envelope UA Compliance

Building-envelope compliance by the total-UA trade-off used by the DOE REScheck and COMcheck programs: the sum of U-factor times area of every proposed assembly against the same sum at the required U-factors, per assembly and in total, with the window-to-wall ratio, the area-weighted U-factors and SHGC, and a slab-edge F-factor term. An assembly U-factor is built from its layers (series resistances with inside and outside films, a generic layer library of values printed in the ORNL Insulation Fact Sheet documentation, the REScheck technical support document and the Wood Handbook) by the parallel-path method of the REScheck technical support document (eq. A.1) with the ORNL reduced-clear-wall value beside it. A degree-day estimate gives the annual heating and cooling energy, fuel and cost from NCEI 1991 to 2020 normals of twelve stations (or entered degree days), infiltration, the design heat loss and the balance-point temperature, and the layer assembly is checked for condensation by the Glaser dew-point method (temperature and vapour-pressure profiles). The default is a 2,000 ft² single-storey house in Chicago (climate zone 5) with the required U-factors of the IECC U-factor table as reprinted by the DOE Building Energy Codes Program; the house itself is illustrative.

1 worked example reproduced, listed on the tool page.

Occupant Load and Egress Capacity

Occupant load of every space from its floor area and an occupant-load factor (entered, with the use selection supplying a sourced default: UFC 3-600-01 Table 10-1 and the IBC / NFPA 101 values as single cited facts), fixed seats or an entered count; the load per floor; the number of exits required by the entered thresholds (2 up to 500, 3 up to 1,000, 4 above); the egress width required at the entered capacity factors (0.3 in per occupant on stairs and 0.2 in on level components, or the sprinklered and voice-alarm reduction) against the clear widths of the entered doors, stairs and corridors with the governing component and the loss-of-one-exit check; travel distance, common path and dead-end comparisons against the entered limits; exit separation as a fraction of the plan diagonal; and the evacuation time by the SFPE hydraulic model (speed-density line, effective widths, corridor to stair to door with queues), with Nelson's FPETOOL estimate beside it. The default is an illustrative two-storey assembly-over-business building.

1 worked example reproduced, listed on the tool page.

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