Building Science Advisor (BSA)

Use Building America's Building Science Advisor tool

How To Use It

To get started select Assessment or Pre-Assessment mode. Assessment mode is designed for users familiar with residential wall construction. Pre-Assessment mode has guidance and resources specifically tailored for those users with little or no background/experience in the design of residential wall constructions. Pre-Assessment mode will walk users through the design process from the selection of the exterior climate to individual components that make up the building envelope. These modes apply to new and retrofit constructions.

New construction - BSA enables experts and novices to evaluate the moisture durability of wall designs based on user inputs. If the user is not familiar with residential wall materials and construction, they can select “Guide to New Wall Construction” under resources for guidance regarding material selection. In addition to the wall construction, the guide provides information regarding the selection of climate zones. Otherwise, the user can select the assessment mode and go directly to the wall construction section. Guidance is also available as drop-down menus in the Wall Construction page for each of the component selections.

Retrofit construction – For the case of energy improvements in the form of envelope energy upgrades, BSA compares the performance of the existing wall to the retrofit solution. For this to work, the user needs to be familiar with the existing construction. If the user is new to energy retrofits, the pre-assessment path will provide guidance with respect to issues concerning the existing construction as well as construction of the energy retrofit.