INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND
BTECC/NIBS Project Committee
In order to obtain information for the development of the guidelines, a contract was issued by NIST
to the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) to obtain the expertise of the Building Thermal
Envelope Coordinating Committee at NIBS. A BTECC/NIBS project committee was established to
solicit and review voluntary contributions of materials for consideration in writing the guidelines.
The project committee sent out requests for information to hundreds of individuals and
organizations and received about fifty responses consisting of material for consideration. The
project committee reviewed this material as to its relevance to the guidelines and provided the
material and reviews to NIST. Many items of interest were obtained, primarily materials from
various industry associations including the American Architectural Manufacturers Association, the
Brick Institute of America, the Indiana Limestone Institute of America, the Masonry Advisory
Council, the National Concrete Masonry Association, the Portland Cement Association and the
Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute. The BTECC/NIBS project committee also reviewed early
drafts of the guidelines and contracted with selected consultants for more detailed reviews.
Appendix E contains a list of the project committee members.
Technical Experts
Early in the development of the guidelines, a contract was issued to Steven Winter Associates to
provide technical assistance on determining the appropriate content and format for the guidelines.
In this effort, they interviewed selected architects across the country regarding the documents they
use in thermal envelope design and how these guidelines might best suit their needs. They also
analyzed the documents cited in these interviews. The results of this effort were used by NIST in
selecting the format of these guidelines. In addition, based on input from the Steven Winter
Associates contract and the results of the literature review conducted at NIST, it was determined
that much of the information needed for the guidelines was not in published form but in the
experience of design professionals and building envelope consultants. In order to benefit from this
source of information, NIST contracted with selected experts in the field of building envelope design
to prepare material for the guidelines in their specific areas of expertise.
References
Brand, R., Architectural Details for Insulated Buildings, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1990.
Grot, R.A., A.K. Persily, Y.M. Chang, J.B. Fang, S. Weber, L.S. Galowin, "Evaluation of the Thermal Integrity
of the Building Envelopes of Eight Federal Office Buildings," NBSIR 85-3147, National Bureau of Standards,
Gaithersburg, 1985.
Owens/Corning Fiberglas, Design Guide for Insulated Buildings, Toledo, Ohio, 1981.
Persily, A.K., "Development of Thermal Envelope Design Guidelines for Federal Office Buildings," NISTIR
4416, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, 1990.
Steven Winter Associates, "Catalog of Thermal Bridges in Commercial and Multi-Family Residential
Construction," ORNL/Sub/88-SA407/1, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1989.
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