Hi All,
Designing our future build in Albany, WA. We're trying to incorporate passive solar principles where we can, to reduce energy input whilst keeping within budget. We've been looking at Reverse Brick Veneer (RBV) as our primary construction method, but we're unsure on whether all external walls should be RBV, purely from a thermal mass perspective.
We're aware that the point of RBV is retaining thermal mass on the inside, but is there a critical point where you exceed the internal mass? It's noted that you can have too much thermal mass which counteracts by absorbing heat from the house when not it's not supposed to. Question is, do we have to undertake NatHERS modeling to estimate an appropriate quantity of thermal mass from RBV, or is the effect negligible? Perhaps there's a compromise in that the excess thermal mass is partially compensated by the extra insulation that RBV provides?
Understand there are plenty of variables, so generalised responses or advice is most welcome!
Cheers