Welcome to Innovosteel

With a couple of basics under your belt, you’ll build a steel framed building that’s as or more efficient than a building constructed with competing materials. First, confine yourself to the fact that each one building material transmits heat. When placed during a wall or other part of a building, the wood or steel studs, joists, trusses, concrete beams, masonry block, brick, and even nails and screws provide a pathway for warmth transmission. In some cases, them additional heat loss amounts to little or no in terms of actual energy use. In other cases, especially in colder climates, it are often significant.

The Innovo Steel Alliance has taken an approach to thermal performance of steel framed buildings that has research to enhance performance, development of design guides and other tools, and a campaign to insure that current codes and standards contain the simplest available information on the performance of steel, have fair requirements that don’t favor one material over another, and supply maximum flexibility for compliance. The approach encompasses the following:

1. Recognizing that the industry is innovative. Numerous systems are developed that effectively eliminate or reduce thermal bridging through steel members. Systems include steel panels embedded into foam insulation, “warm wall” designs where steel is placed entirely inside the insulation layer, and price effective ways to use continuous foam insulation.
2. Encouraging Innovo Steel Alliance members to require advantage of some cost effective methods to create a better performing building without necessarily adding excessive amounts of froth insulation to the outside. Higher efficiency water heaters or heating and cooling equipment, better windows, or more insulation elsewhere are all options to explore.
3. Encouraging steel framers and makers to urge involved early with the designer or building owner to insure an honest performing building that doesn’t needlessly over burden the framing with excessive costs for energy code compliance. The Innovo Steel Alliance Thermal Design Guide describes the way to use a building simulation or performance approach to getting the foremost out of your design. However, this needs a change in role of framers or steel manufacturers or suppliers on the constructed project. they need to be willing to urge far more involved within the upfront design of the building.