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openBuilding

OpenBuilding.ca is a new Canadian Not for Profit (est. 2024), started by Architects (OAA, OAQ), engineers and other design professionals that have created a new, low-cost, high-fidelity and open-source framework for the OBJECTIVE rating of carbon emissions and energy performance of buildings both new and existing. This community-powered initiative features wbLCA, BIM and BEM workflows, calculators, software, APIs, plug-ins, ideas, details, drawings, best-practices guides and professional articles in the spirit of advancing the ecological and resource efficient design in the AEC sector with a current focus on Canada (our tools are in metric) and abroad. This project has been made possible thanks to the generous support of the Ontario Association of Architects and our corporate sponsors and participants like YOU! Thank you for your support.

  • TEUI B.3 Conditioned Area

    If you’re not sure what TEUI3 is, Take me to the Index of Articles! With the pending launch of the OAA’s TEUI v.3 Calculator, we’ve decided to develop a course of lessons in use of the tool, and what assumptions and references have gone into its development. With about 50 user inputs, we figured we’d…

  • The Energy Model vs The Real World

    After 2 years of living in our cold-climate Passive House, how is its real performance measuring up to the energy model used during the building’s design phase? An energy model is a digital replica of a building that simulates heat gains and losses based on the building’s characteristics and climate. It allows us to optimize…

  • TEUI G.2 Solar Gains (and Defaults)

    If you had a million years on this Earth, you might find time to read every possible research paper on energy modelling and come up with a pretty good understanding of window and door behaviour. But having spent nearly 30 years in this field, nothing has gotten any simpler. The closer you look, the more…

  • CO2 monitor held aloft outside with reading of 431ppm, against backdrop of 956ppm interior values on a graph

    TEDI and Ventilation, the tail that wags the dog

    I will keep this post as short as possible because it is complex, and because it is complex I’ve made a calculator. Without discussing the dynamic interplay of 8 key variables pertaining to TEDI and Ventilation, it is impossible to separate facts from opinions. Here’s how I see it: An idling car or truck with…

  • Coleman Heatpump

    Hybrid Heating

    We were initially under the assumption that we had to make an all-or-nothing choice: basically a) go 100% electric to get to zero carbon, or b) replace a gas furnace with a new gas furnace and lock in to a carbon-emitting heating system for the next 20 years – the estimated life of the system.…

  • CMHC No. 57 Rendering

    Mid-Century Matters

    Mid-Century Modern design has always appealed to me, the low pitch, butterfly roofs, big beams that shoot through floor-to-ceiling glass, consistent ceiling to soffit transitions, natural materials, quirky cantilevers, open concept Kitchen-Living-Dining areas, what’s not to love? For houses that were designed in this style from the 1940’s through to the 1970’s, the ‘Atomic Ranch’…

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