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| Warehouse Insulation |
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 Do warehouses have to be insulated to meet the energy code?What if it's just an open warehouse, with no air conditioning? Maybe just a couple of wall heaters to keep the pipes from freezing? The answer depends on the capacity of the heaters. According to the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), the only buildings, or portions of buildings, that are exempt from the envelope (shell of the building) provisions of the code are "Low Energy Buildings". Low energy buildings are defined under the code Section 101.5.2 as: 1. Those with a peak design rate of energy usage less than 3.4 Btu/h*ft2 or 1.0 watt/ft2 of floor area for space conditioning purposes. 2. Those that do not contain conditioned space. The term "Conditioned Space" is defined under Section 202 as "An area or room within a building being heated or cooled, containing uninsulated ducts, or with a fixed opening directly into an adjacent conditioned space." Warehouses, therefore, must be insulated to meet energy code requirements, unless they qualify as "Low Energy Buildings." For example, a 20,000 square foot metal warehouse with three 5-kW wall heaters would be exempt from the envelope provisions of the code, because it meets the definition of Low Energy Building at 0.75 watt/ft2. However, a 20,000 square foot metal warehouse with two 15-kW wall heaters would have to meet all the envelope provisions of the code, as it exceeds the Low Energy Building criteria at 1.5 watts/ft2. For a typical metal building warehouse, the prescriptive envelope provisions of the code require R-19 batts with R-5 blocks under the roof, R-13 batts in the walls, and windows, doors, and skylights that meet the fenestration requirements of the code Table 502.3. Regardless if the warehouse is exempt from the envelope provisions or not, the requirements for mechanical systems, service water heating, and lighting must all be satisfied independently. |
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Three Texas Locations
League City, TX (Galveston)
2951 Marina Bay Dr. #130-356
League City, TX 77573
Pasadena, TX (Houston)
3910 Fairmont Parkway #272
Pasadena, TX 77504
Beaumont, TX
2204 Oak North
Nederland, TX 77627