Wall continuous insulation options specified two different ways

[shorowit]

Why are wall continuous insulation options specified two different ways in options_lookup.tsv?

There are some options where the walls include continuous insulation:

Insulation Wall	"Wood Stud, Uninsulated, R-5 Sheathing"	ResStockArguments	wall_type=WoodStud	wall_assembly_r=8.4

And then there are some options that specify the continuous insulation alone:

Insulation Sheathing	R-5	ResStockArguments	wall_continuous_exterior_r=5

Seems like this would make it harder to query for whether there is continuous insulation, and could potentially cause double-counting bugs.

[afontani]

@shorowit : The Insulation Wall "Wood Stud, Uninsulated, R-5 Sheathing" is the option used in project_national. The Insulation Sheathing option is not currently being used and can be deleted.

[shorowit]

I later realized how this probably came to me. Like you said, the Insulation Wall options are used for existing homes. I assume the Insulation Sheathing options are available for upgrade purposes. I suppose this is similar to the Infiltration vs Infiltration Reduction options.

Would it make more sense to prefix housing characteristics that are only used for upgrade purposes with "Upgrade" or similar? So "Insulation Sheathing" would become "Upgrade Insulation Sheathing" and "Infiltration Reduction" would become "Upgrade Infiltration Reduction". I feel like that would be clearer.

[shorowit]

Another example: "Windows" (some options include storms) vs "Storm Windows". The latter are only used for upgrades.