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Space humidity/interior basement wall insulation moisture content relationships with and without vapour retarders.

Author(s) : GOLDBERG L. F., ALOI T.

Summary

An interior basement wall finishing system consisting of mould/mildew resistant rigid fibreglass panels mounted in a polyvinyl chloride frame was tested experimentally over two heating seasons in a 5.9 m square foundation test module having hollow masonry block walls without any exterior waterproofing. Three vapour retarder configurations were tested, namely, no vapour retarder, a polyethylene vapour retarder on the interior side of the insulation, and a polyethylene vapour retarder on the wall side of the insulation. Conditioned basement interior conditions with temperature and relative humidity setpoints of 20 °C and 40 to 50%, respectively, were maintained over the first heating season. During the second heating season, the temperature was maintained at 13.3 °C with no dehumidification to emulate an unconditioned basement. During the intervening summer, the internal relative humidity ranged from 50 to 82%. A comprehensive set of transient and weekly manual data coupled with weekly observations of moisture conditions were collected. Under the particular "worst-case," cold-climate experimental conditions used, these data show that the no vapour retarder configuration has a stable annual wetting/drying cycle for a conditioned basement and allows the conservative inference of a stable annual wetting/drying cycle for an unconditioned basement as well, so indicating the suitability of this configuration for interior basement insulation. The internal vapour retarder configuration demonstrated an unstable annual wetting/drying cycle with a single episode of condensate pooling on the floor. The wall-side configuration also yielded a stable annual wetting/drying cycle but produced prolonged condensate pooling on the slab. Thus, neither of the latter two vapour retarder configurations was demonstrated experimentally to be appropriate for long-term usage with this interior basement insulation system.

Details

  • Original title: Space humidity/interior basement wall insulation moisture content relationships with and without vapour retarders.
  • Record ID : 2005-1393
  • Languages: English
  • Source: IAQ 2001. Moisture, microbes and health effects: indoor air quality and moisture in buildings [CD-ROM].
  • Publication date: 2002

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