Aspects of Residential Construction

The findings of the investigation are presented in this section. Each topical area of interest·materials used, energy consumption, and waste management·is addressed separately.

The high cost, deteriorating quality and uncertain supply of lumber is driving construction firms to search for alternatives to lumber (Studt, 1994, p. 43). Some of the leading wood substitutes are steel framing, concrete and steel, laminates and, plastic construction materials. The leading alternative to traditional sawn lumber is steel framing. Rising lumber costs have results in an increased market share for steel framing from a one-percent in 1992 to more than 10 percent. The high consistency of steel means less material is needed, which results in lower installation costs and more efficient loading designs.

Price is not the only problem with lumber. Quality also is a serious problem. Builders often discard up to 25 percent of their lumber due to warping, knots, and low strengths obtained in contemporary rapid-growth forest products.

A National Science Foundation-funded study developed three-layer thick-laminate lumber products that improve the performance of low quality lumber. By creating balanced laminates, the b

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w. Energy Requirements The severity of the cold season determines the amount of residential heating that is required and thus the increased emissions of, for example, [SO.sub.2] in winter. In areas with a moderate climate, the heating and pollution loads tend to be distributed more evenly over the year. Thermal inversions are another particular problem for areas in temperate and cold climates. Under normal dispersive conditions, hot pollutant gases rise as they come into contact with the colder air masses at high altitudes. Under certain circumstances, however, the air temperature may increase with altitude, and an inversion layer forms a few tens or hundreds of meters above the ground. This inversion layer may then trap pollutants close to the emission sources and act as a heat cover, prolonging the inversion. These conditions cause an increase in the consumption of energy for cooling. A gas-fired absorption chiller technology that originated at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory is being developed by the Trane Company in collaboration with the Gas Research Institute. This technology is expected to make gas cooling 50 percent more efficient at a 25 percent higher cost. A new generator-absorber heat exchange technolog
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Cooling Center, Analysis Conclusions, Science Foundation-funded, I-joists Lengths, Cornell University, Results Investigation, Energy Requirements, Management Scraps, Research Institute, United States·depending, engineered wood, residential construction, wood framing, steel framing, softwood lumber, energy sources, engineered wood framing, fossil fuels, sawn lumber, engineered lumber, solar hot-water, solar hot-water system, selection energy sources, chlorine chlorine byproducts, polluting practices lead,
Approximate Word count = 2817
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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