Abstract
Since 1979, we have designed and built houses that had cavity walls with concrete blocks in order to make masonry constructions appropriate for a cold climate. Styrene foam boards 100mm thick are put on the outside of the inner block walls that are load bearing. The outer skin of the 120mm thick block is tied to the inner structural wall with 13mm steel bars. In 1996, we built a new double block house with improved insulation and compared its thermal performance with that of a wooden house which had about the same specification. The kerosene consumption of the block house for space heating was 50% less and the room temperature on the day with the highest temperature was about 3℃ lower than those of the wooden house.
