The Building Science Centre of Excellence is equipped with advanced facilities and equipment that enable experiments under controlled environmental conditions, as well as experiments under real outdoor conditions. Our field monitoring equipment can also be deployed to evaluate the in-service conditions of buildings. Experimental and field data feed our advanced computer models to accurately simulate building performance at the materials, components, systems, and whole building levels.
Hygrothermal Property Measurement Laboratory
The Hygrothermal Property Measurement Laboratory (HPML) is equipped with test apparatus to measure hygrothermal properties of building materials including density, thermal conductivity, heat capacity, sorption isotherm, vapor permeability, and water absorption rate.
Building Envelope Test Facility
The Building Envelope Test Facility (BETF) is a unique research, development and demonstration resource created to evaluate the hygrothermal performance of full-scale building envelope assemblies and associated products under real outdoor weather conditions. The BETF is able to accommodate up to 62 different wall panels at once and is designed flexibly to allow testing for a broad range of wall assemblies, including wood and steel stud framing, concrete and masonry construction, as well as window walls and curtain walls. It also has adjustable roof overhangs and the ability to test balconies and floor/wall junctions.
With the aid of a 600-channel data acquisition system, the hygrothermal conditions within the wall assemblies including temperature, relative humidity, moisture content, heat flux, air velocity, wind-induced pressure, and incidence of condensation and rain penetration are monitored. Microclimate conditions including wind speed, wind direction, solar radiation on both horizontal and vertical surfaces, horizontal rainfall and driving rain on wall surfaces are also collected by an on-site weather station and rain gauges.
The BETF is the sole two-story facility of its kind located in the west coast rainforest environment, allowing manufacturers, associations, and organizations to gauge the impact of climate exposure on building products or processes in a real-world environment.
Advanced Environmental Chamber and Guarded Hot Box
The Advanced Environmental Chamber and Guarded Hot Box (AECGHB) is a multi-purpose testing facility enabling the evaluation of the performance of full-scale building envelope systems under controlled environmental conditions. In particular, the Environmental Chamber can be used as a hot box apparatus to test the thermal performance of opaque and fenestration envelope systems. Its advanced capabilities include the ability to measure thermal bridging effects and dynamic pressure conditions.
Field Studies Equipment
The BSCE is equipped with various field equipment to evaluate the real operating conditions of buildings and to validate and calibrate models and experiments. The equipment is used to measure the real indoor and outdoor hygrothermal loads and to assess the in-situ performance of the envelope.
Whole Building Performance Laboratory (WBPRL)
The Whole Building Performance Research Laboratory (WBPRL) is used to conduct research on the dynamic interactions between building envelope components, the indoor environment and mechanical systems.
The laboratory consists of two identical 250-square foot buildings that are fully exposed to natural environmental conditions. One of the buildings is used as a reference and the other one as a test building during the evaluation of alternative design options. The building envelope components, including all the walls and the roof, are removable and fully configurable to allow testing of various building envelope systems. Each building is equipped with separate mechanical systems for heating, cooling, ventilation, humidification and dehumidification.
The WBPRL is used to evaluate various building design options in a holistic way with the objective of choosing design parameters that can lead to a reduction in energy consumption while maintaining the indoor air quality at an acceptable level for occupants’ comfort and health, and prolonging the durability of building envelope components. It is valuable for research purposes as boundary conditions are realistic in magnitude, rate, sequence, and probability of occurrence.
