Library

Research study estimating potential energy savings relative to conventional ducted air distribution, and identifying equipment requirements, costs, and barriers.

Report describing an air distribution system composed of a series of uniformly-sized ducts that terminate in rooms throughout the home and return to a central manifold, similar in fashion to a “home-run” cross-linked polyethylene plumbing system.

Document providing guideance and considerations for duct design in an energy efficient house.

Report describing two retrofit duct sealing techniques - manually-applied sealants and injecting a spray sealant, that were implemented in several low-rise multi-unit buildings in North Carolina.

Report summarizing systems research activities for new housing in hot-humid climates, including NightCool, interior duct systems in manufactured housing, ventilation and dehumidification, plug load reduction and solar and conventional hot water.

Brochure intended to provide readers with a working knowledge of residential heating and cooling duct systems.

Brochure with details on HVAC duct air sealing.

Brochure with information about ducts in conditioned space.

Information sheet about reservoir claddings.

Information sheet about sealing combustion appliances to ensure good indoor air quality.

Information sheet providing recommendations on the installation of vapor control layers.

Report describing the recommended best practices to achieve energy savings without compromising health or safety.

Case study about Artistic Homes of Albuquerque, New Mexico, the first home builder in the United States to offer true net zero energy construction to the average home buyer on every home it builds.

Expert meeting focusing on identifying gaps and barriers in combustion safety that need to be addressed by future research, and to develop data-driven technical recommendations for code updates so that a common approach for combustion safety can be adopted by all members of the building energy...

Document describing the Building America research benchmark for the residential building program.

Document describing the Building America research benchmark for the residential building program.

Reference investigating the strategy of using buried and/or encapsulated ducts to reduce duct thermal losses in residential buildings.

Report about City of Meriden Housing Authority's (MHA) collaboration with Jonathon Rose Companies to complete a gut renovation of 126 residential units in the Chamberlain Heights retrofit project.

Report on a simplified test procedure for combustion safety that is easier to implement and should produce fewer false positives than the previous procedure.

Report summarizing one year of monitoring and analysis of the effectiveness of a space conditioning system at maintaining temperature and relative humidity levels in a test home, as well as room-to-room differences and the actual measured energy consumption by the space conditioning system.

Report on heating and cooling air-distribution ducts that are insulated, installed close to the ceiling in a vented attic and covered with attic insulation to minimize energy loss.

Research report anayzing the results of a large retrofit project, turining an old school into near zero energy consumption apartments in Greenfield MA.

Report on experiments comparing the cooling and heating seasonal and peak demand performance of different variable-capacity air conditioning and heat pump units.

Report identifying two barriers that limit the ability of builders to explore opportunities for higher levels of energy efficiency in housing: the use of duct system materials that inherently achieve airtightness and are right-sized for low-load houses, and, the ability to air seal fire separation...

Document comparing simulation results from a modified version of the EnergyGauge program to include various HVAC runtime strategies.

Research study describing experiments run in an unoccupied 1600 square foot house to evaluate the delivered performance as well as the relative performance of a SEER 21 variable capacity heat pump versus a SEER 13 heat pump.

This report evaluates the performance of variable-capacity comfort systems, with a focus on inverter-driven, variable-capacity systems, as well as proposed system enhancements.

Report describing the evaluation and selection of ventilation systems for homes retrofitted for energy aesthetic and health/safety improvements in Las Vegas.

Document reviewing four cold-climate northern Illinois energy efficiency retrofit programs to identify practices, tools, and approaches to streamline and reduce costs of comprehensive retrofits, and to improve the consistency of audit and retrofit delivery practices across different programs.

Case study on exhaust ventilation and corresponding outdoor air intake strategies implemented in high-performance new-construction multifamily buildings.

Report evaluating opportunities to improve and streamline delivery of residential retrofit measures.

Research study documenting market-ready energy solutions to improve the efficiency of new affordable housing in the marine climate of Washington State.

Technical report describing the evaluation of four different ventilation strategies for providing make-up air in high-performance, new construction multifamily buildings in the Northeast, emphasizing the challenges posed by increasing airtightness standards and the variability of system performance...

Report describing research that helps inform best practices for air-sealing multifamily buildings in the Northeast.

Expert meeting describing meeting details for recommendations for applying water heaters in combination space and domestic water heating systems.

Expert meeting held to discuss simplified space conditioning systems in low load homes, including the relationship between advanced thermal enclosures, space conditioning systems and comfort.

Expert meeting held to review and discuss results and future plans for research to improve the performance of hydronic heating systems using condensing boilers and baseboard convectors.

Report about field testing that characterizes the uniformity of room-to-room ventilation air distribution under various operating conditions by examining multi-zone tracer gas decay curves and calculating local age-of-air.

Technical report on a field validation study that utilizes low-cost indoor air quality sensors to assess a smart ventilation system's effectiveness in maintaining acceptable indoor humidity in low-load homes in humid environments, revealing that while the smart ventilation algorithm demonstrated...

Research report assessing the moisture and cooling load impacts of airtightness and mechanical ventilation in homes in hot-humid climates.

Research study outlining savings from reducing air infiltration, with and without the addition of mechanical ventilation, using two identical laboratory homes designed to model existing Florida building stock.

Report explaining the issues and concerns with conventional ventilated crawlspaces and to outline prescriptive measures for improvements that will create healthier and more durable spaces.

Website providing information on low-energy and standard cooling systems, with a focus on saving energy.

Report providing information about energy-efficient heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) equipment options to help homeowners cut their energy use, reduce their carbon footprint, and increase their homes comfort, health, and safety.

Report evaluating the relative effectiveness of various control and distribution strategies to improve hydronic space heating performance in existing low-rise multifamily buildings

The study described in this white paper is based on building energy modeling with an important focus on the indoor humidity impacts of ventilation.

Report summarizing approaches to addressing duct leakage in hot humid climates.

Fact sheet describing the newly developed Ventilation-Integrated Comfort System (VICS) that reduces space requirements and eliminates costly ductwork for separate heating, cooling, and ventilation systems, all while enhancing performance, addressing the demand for energy-efficient homes, and...

Report targeting the growing number of homes utilizing deep retrofit measures and new construction practices to realize sufficiently lower infiltration levels that require mechanical ventilation as prescribed by ASHRAE Standard 62.2.

Report presenting lab evaluation of five heat pump water heaters available in the US market today.