What’s a WUFI Analysis?

It’s an important and useful modelling tool which can help you avoid condensation and mould in your home’s building envelope.

Learn more with Jessica Allen from Climasure.

This episode is part of a special series on the National Construction Code, and NCC 2022.

Listen to the episode now.

Hello! This is Episode 297, and in it, I’m continuing my conversation with Jessica Allen from Climasure. 

If you haven’t listened to Part 1 yet, be sure to head to Episode 296, where you’ll hear Jessica discuss air tightness, and give a detailed run down of what blower door tests are, how they work, and how you can use them in assessing the air tightness of your home whether building new or renovating. 

You can also download a free PDF transcript of Part 1 by heading to www.undercoverarchitect.com/296.

In this episode, Jessica will discuss more tools that can be used as an ‘as built verification’ process during your build, so you can confirm during construction that your home is being built as per your design intentions and specifications. 

She’ll also share some other helpful tips to help manage risk of condensation, and improve your build quality overall. And Jess will also share insights about the updates to the NCC2022 and what she’s seeing in the industry as those she’s consulting to understand these latest changes.

Now, let’s dive in!

Jessica is a building designer, and both a Certified Passivhaus Designer and a WUFI professional. Her career started with code compliance – NatHERS ratings and the other complexities of the energy efficiency section the NCC, and grew to include air tightness consulting, blower door testing for both residential and commercial buildings. 

Jess believes the real difference can be made, both to building occupants and to our planet, in improving building performance through a knowledge of building science and using it to create better homes overall.

Climasure provides consultancy services and is also a Pro Clima distributor, and provides a huge amount of industry education and advocacy to help builders, architects and homeowners create healthy, durable and energy efficient buildings.

Things like blower door tests, a WUFI Analysis and thermal imaging, can all be incredibly useful tools to use in your build or renovation to create a better outcome for your future home. 

What’s really exciting about this is that, for you as the homeowner, it provides you with opportunities to create homes that aren’t reliant on guesswork. That aren’t reliant on just naively trusting whether a builder is doing the right thing. Where you can have data to inform your decisions, and tests to include during construction to provide certainty in your built outcome. That’s SUPER exciting.

Yes, all builders are supposed to build to code. 

But unfortunately, you won’t necessarily discover a home hasn’t been built to code until AFTER the builder is finished, and then you’ll have to chase the builder, your warranty and your insurance in order to rectify any issues. 

Wouldn’t you rather avoid that drama altogether by getting it right DURING construction, and knowing you’re actually getting the best outcome whilst the builder is still on site and something can still be done about it?

And whilst our building codes are not there yet on fully protecting you from the risks associated with many standard building practices that can create poor moisture management, thermal bridging and leaky buildings, it’s so useful to know these tools are available to you. 

Unfortunately, there is still so much of the industry that isn’t across the opportunities there are to deliver homes this way, so I love that you can understand more about the things Jess and other guests have taken us through, so you can have better conversations when interviewing potential team members. And also what you can include in your design and construction process to achieve a great outcome in your project and home.

Let’s jump into Part 2 of my conversation with Jessica.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE NOW.

RESOURCES:

Please note, the links to some of these pages may be out of date or superseded as the NCC2022 adoption occurs, or (later) the NCC2022 is superseded by newer legislation.

National Construction Code 2022 >>> https://ncc.abcb.gov.au/editions/ncc-2022

NCC2022 state and territory adoption dates >>> https://abcb.gov.au/ncc-2022-state-and-territory-adoption-dates

NCC 2022 overview of key changes: articles >>> https://ncc.abcb.gov.au/ncc-2022-overview-key-changes-articles

Climasure >>> https://www.climasure.com.au/

Access the support and guidance you need to be confident and empowered when renovating and building your family home inside my flagship online program, HOME METHOD >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/the-home-method/

Learn more about how to interview and select the right builder with the Choose Your Builder mini-course >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/choose-your-builder

Access my free online workshop “Your Project Plan” >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/projectplan