AISI Standards Council Establishes New Group to Address Energy Standards for Building Envelopes

The Standards Council of the American Iron and Steel Institute has formed a new group that will be primarily responsible for the ongoing development of AISI S250, North American Standard for Thermal Transmittance of Building Envelopes with Cold-Formed Steel Framing. The new Committee on Energy Standards falls under the administrative oversight of the AISI Standards Council, which also oversees the Committee on Specifications and the Committee on Framing Standards.

The new group is recognized as a consensus body by the American National Standards Institute. It is comprised of AISI staff and experts from the steel construction industry, and will develop and maintain methods for determining heat transfer through building envelopes for assemblies containing cold‐formed steel and other materials; develop prescriptive and performance solutions for code compliance, construction details and installation quality standards; and address other similar issues that impact cold‐formed steel in the energy codes and standards arena. The first meeting of the committee will be held virtually on March 7.

AISI S250-21 is a single source for calculating the thermal transmittance of walls and ceiling/roof envelope assemblies that contain cold-formed steel framing. The advantages of AISI S250-21 over all previous calculation methods include the ability to analyze wall assemblies that have framing members spaced from 6 inches to 24 inches on center, framing member steel thicknesses from 33 mils (0.0329 inch) to 68 mils (0.0677 inch), and wall assemblies with insulation in the cavity, partially in the cavity or no cavity insulation.

For more information, visit aisistandards.org.