Library

A fact sheet educating homeowners on the importance of residential safe rooms, including their cost and how to register a safe room with local officials.

Website providing resources for seismic retrofits for builders and homeowners as well as city permit requirements from the City of Portland OR.

Brochure with information on residential solar hot water systems.

Brochure detailing the guidelines, recommendations, and preferences of the City of Burnsville for citizens installing solar photovoltaics.

Fact sheet describing residential tornado safe room doors.

DOE report characterizing the installed base of windows and window coverings, and how users operate window coverings in order to enable precise quantification of energy savings.

Website describing the USRC, which "brings an unparalleled level of capability to the mission of improving community resilience in the built environment."

Website providing resilient housing articles that relate to codes, including webinars, training, and guest articles.

Webpage with guidance document detailing voluntary interim guidelines for conducting home energy ratings on multifamily residential buildings.

Presentation describing RESNET grading criteria for insulation installation.

This report discusses proposed updates to the pool pumps and motors, and portable electric spas standards in the Appliance Efficiency Regulations (California Code of Regulations, Title 20, Sections 1601 to 1609). These proposed updates are part of the 2012 Appliance Efficiency Rulemaking, Phase I...

Information sheet describing solar PV upgrade for an existing homes.

Document discussing changes in testing the annual performance ratings for solar water heaters.

Recovery advisory guide providing guidance on existing code requirements as well as recommend best practices for attachment design, installation, and maintenance of rooftop solar panels to increase panel wind resistance in the U.S. Virgin Islands after Hurricane Maria.

Research report detailing Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) partnership with Manatee County Habitat for Humanity to design a compact, Zero Energy Ready Home in Florida, tackling challenges like equipment sizing and indoor air quality, offering insights for projects surpassing building code...

Webpage discussing the characteristics of sunlight and how cool roofs work to reduce solar heat gain.

Fact sheet describing improvements in the earthquake resistance of residential and commercial new construction through the adoption into the International Residential Code of seismic provisions including those developed by the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP).

Website providing links to building codes, seismic codes, code enforcement, safe buildings, and seismic retrofitting.

Standard using deficiency-based and systematic procedures that use performance-based principles to evaluate and retrofit existing buildings to withstand the effects of earthquakes.

Standard using deficiency-based and systematic procedures that use performance-based principles to evaluate and retrofit existing buildings to withstand the effects of earthquakes. The current version of this standard was published in the year 2017, and is available in both digital and print...

Newsletter containing five articles focused on seismic retrofitting.

Web page describing the basics of how to size and build a battery bank for electricity storage.

Manual that identifies certain leakage limits for ducts and outlines procedures for testing ducts for conformity with air leakage limits that are set forth in a designer’s project specification.

Paper describing the development and testing of an affordable net-zero energy house in Lenoir City, Tennessee.

Website article describing the way solar panels are coupled to AC and DC battery energy storage systems.

Report providing a synopsis of a project to evaluate the performance of a roof-integrated solar water heating system.

SEIA resources page.

Tool determining the most economical and efficient photovoltaic array location and position.

Guidelines to assist builders in designing and constructing homes equipped with a set of features that make the installation of solar energy systems after the completion of the home’s construction easier and less expensive.

The Solar Rating & Certification Corporation is the leading solar heating and cooling product certification program in North America, certifying to the requirements of International and Uniform Codes and Standards

Report identifying the important aspects of building design and construction to enable installation of solar photovoltaic and heating systems at some time after the building is constructed.

A research paper exploring the design, installation, repair and maintenance of solar water and pool heating technologies.

Website describing how solar water heaters -- also called solar domestic hot water systems -- can be a cost-effective way to generate hot water for your home.

The RERH specifications and checklists take a builder and a project design team through the steps of assessing a home’s solar resource potential and defining the minimum structural and system components needed to support a solar energy system.

Outlines the minimum criteria for a solar water heating system installed by a Solar Water Heating Program trade ally under Energy Trust of Oregon’s Solar Water Heating Program.

Webpage describing the basics of solar plus storage operations on homes.

California Energy Commission report presenting the concept of cool walls and providing guidelines for their building- and climate-appropriate use to conserve energy and reduce emissions.

Handheld solar site analysis tool capturing whole-horizon images for a site and generating shading analysis reports.

Factsheet describing the use of rigid foam insulation to meet energy efficiency requirements and minimize fire risks.

Standard that defines the roles of and minimum requirements for mechanical and natural ventilation systems and the building envelope intended to provide acceptable indoor air quality in low-rise residential buildings. This version of the standard was published in the year 2016, and is available for...

A standard providing minimum energy efficiency requirements for buildings that are not low-rise residential buildings.

Website providing a link for purchasing NFPA 1141, Standard for Fire Protection Infrastructure for Land Development in Wildland, Rural, and Suburban Areas.

Website providing a link for purchasing NFPA 703, Standard for Fire Retardant—Treated Wood and Fire–Retardant Coatings for Building Materials.

Standard establishing requirements for the performance and installation of gasketing systems including mortised to doors, frames or both which was published in the year 2021 and a can be purchased to be viewed in full from the ANSI webstore in the link.

Standard 680 establishes definitions, classifications, test requirements, data requirements, ratings, operating requirements, marking and nameplate data and conformance conditions for residential air filter equipment.

Website providing a link for purchasing NFPA 1144, Standard for Reducing Structure Ignition Hazards from Wildland Fire.

This Standard provides a consistent, uniform methodology for evaluating the airtightness of building envelopes and heating and cooling air ducts and the air flows of mechanical ventilation systems.

Webpage containing the latest version of ANSI/RESNET/ICC 380, Standard for testing Airtightness of Building Enclosures, Airtightness of Heating and Cooling Air Distribution Systems, and Airflow of Mechanical Ventilation Systems. This standard provides a consistent, uniform methodology for evaluating...

Link to find the latest version of ANSI/RESNET/ICC 301, a standard providing a methodology for calculating Energy Rating Index for code compliance.

Website containing links to key wildfire codes and standards.