In recent years, energy efficiency and sustainability have garnered widespread attention as buildings account for 30–40% of total primary energy use in North America and 24% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Owing to the cold climate in Canada, energy-efficient building practices have drawn significant interest among authorities and researchers who aim to develop sustainable means of improving energy efficiency. Among these means is the use of environmentally friendly building materials that also contribute to improving thermal resistance. This research investigates and evaluates the long-term thermal performance of innovative multi-functional panels (MFPs) in various wall assembly configurations for residential buildings under varying climatic conditions. The two types of MFPs under investigation combine two layers of wood sheathing with either wood fiber or extruded polystyrene (XPS) as an additional external layer to conventional light wood-frame wall assemblies in order to improve the overall energy efficiency of the conventional wall assemblies. For this purpose, two full-scale identical demonstration buildings (test houses) are built for in-situ testing—one located in the cold continental climate of Edmonton, Canada, and the other in the humid coastal climate of Vancouver, Canada. The two types of MFPs (with wood fiber or XPS) are added to conventional wall assemblies and placed on both north and south façades of each of the test houses. Sensors are installed on each wall assembly under controlled indoor climatic conditions to monitor temperature, moisture content, and heat flux at the inner, middle, and outer layers and at three different vertical levels for each wall assembly. The indoor climatic conditions are maintained by installing a floor heating system, an air conditioner, and a rotating fan for even air circulation. Also, each test house is equipped with a weather station to monitor solar radiation, precipitation, atmospheric pressure, outdoor temperature, and relative humidity, among other metrics such as dew point, wind direction, and wind speed. Results from this study demonstrate the effect of various weather conditions on the thermal performance of MFPs in comparison with conventional wall assemblies and future research will determine the long-term hygrothermal performance of the MFPs under investigation. The ongoing long-term study will provide a practical guideline for the use of wood fiber—an environmentally friendly and recyclable material—as a sustainable insulation material in the North American housing market.

近年来，由于建筑物占北美一次能源总使用量的30–40％和全球温室气体排放量的24％，能源效率和可持续性受到了广泛关注。由于加拿大气候寒冷，节能建筑的做法引起了当局和研究人员的极大兴趣，这些当局和研究人员致力于开发可持续的方法来提高能源效率。这些手段中包括使用环保的建筑材料，这些材料也有助于提高耐热性。这项研究调查和评估了创新的多功能面板（MFP）在不同气候条件下用于住宅建筑的各种墙壁组件配置中的长期热性能。正在研究的两种类型的MFP将两层木质护套与木纤维或挤塑聚苯乙烯（XPS）结合在一起，作为常规轻木框架墙组件的附加外层，以提高常规墙组件的整体能效。为此，建造了两座完全相同的示范建筑（测试房屋）以进行现场测试，一幢位于加拿大埃德蒙顿的寒冷大陆气候，另一幢位于加拿大温哥华的潮湿沿海气候。将两种类型的MFP（具有木纤维或XPS）添加到常规墙组件中，并分别放置在每个测试室的南北立面上。在可控的室内气候条件下，将传感器安装在每个墙组件上，以监控内部的温度，水分含量和热通量，中间层和外层，以及每个壁组件的三个不同的垂直高度。通过安装地板采暖系统，空调和旋转风扇以保持室内空气流通，可以保持室内气候条件。此外，每个测试室都配备了一个气象站，以监控太阳辐射，降水，大气压力，室外温度和相对湿度以及其他指标，例如露点，风向和风速。这项研究的结果表明，与传统的墙组件相比，各种天气条件对MFP的热性能都有影响，未来的研究将确定所研究MFP的长期湿热性能。