Library

Guide providing minimum design and construction requirements for storm shelters that provide a safe refuge from storms that produce high winds, hurricanes, and tornadoes.

Report summarizing the requirements to strenghthen new homes against property damage caused by high wind occurrences per the IBHS Fortified Homes High Wind Standard for New Homes.

Report summarizing the wind-resistant provisions of the 2015 edition of the International Building Code.

Federal statistics about national energy consumption in residential homes.

Florida building code including all the amendments and additions by Florida for the wind-borne debris regions and the high-velocity hurricane zone.

A colored map showing seismic zones across the United States, ranging from lowest to highest seismic hazards.

Report assessing and scoring code enforcement and administration and contractor licensing in the 18 states most vulnerable to catastrophic hurricanes along the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico.

Building code for the state of California providing the building rules and regulations as well as disaster resistance tools.

Report summarizing the requirements for strenghtening and protecting the roof, openings in the house, and creating a continuous load path to strengthen walls and foundation per the IBHS Fortified Homes Hurricane Standard for New Homes.

Residential building code for the State of Florida.

Guide describing the requirements by FORTIFIED Home™ for improving the home's resistance in severe thunderstorms, straight-line wind events, and high winds at the outer edges of tornadoes.

Guide describing the requirements by FORTIFIED Home™ for improving the home's resistance in severe thunderstorms, straight-line wind events, and high winds at the outer edges of tornadoes.

Federal statistics about national energy consumption in residential homes in 2020

Report assessing building codes for the 18 Atlantic and Gulf coast states which are most prone to hurricanes, as of 2018.

Article describing ways builders can improve the hurricane resistance of the homes they construct, especially 1) strengthening the continuous load path, 2) upgrading the building envelope, and 3) improving the roof system performance.

Report providing builders in marine climates with guidance for building homes that have whole-house energy savings of 40% over the Building America benchmark with no added overall costs for consumers.

Report describing measures that builders in mixed-humid climates can use to build homes that have whole-house energy savings of 40% over the Building America benchmark with no added overall costs for consumers.

Report discussing opportunities and trends in the U.S. home performance contracting industry, along with market drivers such as consumer demand; federal, state, and local programs; and utility and non-governmental programs.

Report describing a project whose goal was to determine the prevalence of residential comfort system faults with a focus on air conditioners and heat pumps, and on key faults that can occur during installation: (1) incorrect refrigerant charge level (undercharge or overcharge); (2) indoor coil...

Guidance document from the UN environment programme on climate-resilient buildings and communities practices, including guidance on heat waves, drought, hurricanes, and flooding.

Website article comparing DC and AC batteries and explaining that DC batteries have black start ability to restart from solar power while providing AC batteries need grid power to restart if fully discharged.

Website article describing pros and cons of DC and AC batteries and explaining that AC batteries are less expensive than DC batteries.

Website article describing the advantages and disadvantages of AC and DC battery energy storage systems and inverters for solar power systems.

Report describing the experience gained from AIA’s Disaster Assistance Program with first-hand accounts of disaster response and recovery, case studies and other best practices, including approaches to designing buildings to be more adaptable to uncertainty.

Website describing electric vehicles, electric vehicle charging stations, and incentives for installing electric vehicle charging stations.

Report analyzing design heating load sizing methods for superinsulated homes in cold climates and comparing them to the actual energy usage to determine if the building load calculation methodology should be changed for calculating the design heating load of these homes.

Standard providing a methodology for evaluating the installation quality of unitary HVAC systems.

A publication highlighting recommendations that contribute to improved overall performance in the structural shell and focus on good connection details to tie together exterior walls, roofs and floors.

Wall bracing calculator simplifying the design of residential structures that comply with 2009, 2012, 2015, 2018 or 2021 International Residential Code (IRC) wall bracing requirements.

Web-based mapping tool offering a fast, reliable way to look up key design parameters specified in Standard ASCE 7-10, 7-16, or 7-22 for a specific address or location which is free to use and can look up data for eight different environmental hazard types: wind, tornado, seismic, ice, rain, flood...

Report describing the business case of hosting a Level 2 electric vehicle (EV) charging station in New York, including analysis of real-world data on equipment use, costs, revenue, and assumptions derived from industry reports and original research.

A report that evaluates the force it takes to crack stucco of various thicknesses.

DOE report characterizing market and technical barriers impeding broader utilization of fault detection technology for residential HVAC energy efficiency applications.

Website providing comparison charts and reviews of battery energy storage systems for solar power systems.

Fact sheet providing information on building-scale and utility-scale battery storage for disaster resistance.

Article describing bidirectinoal charging and energy storage methods using electric vehicles.

Report describing detailed information on costs associated with the installation of electric vehicle chargers.

Document providing guidance to U.S. home builders who want to accept the challenge.

Guide describing measures that builders in the cold and very cold climates can take to build homes that have whole-house energy savings of 40% over the Building America benchmark with no added overall costs for consumers.

Report summarizing the guidelines for developing and reporting analytical results in a consistent and meaningful manner for all home energy uses.

Document illustrating some analysis concepts that are proven to be effective and reliable in analyzing the transient energy usage of advanced energy systems as well as of entire houses.

Document containing recommendations on how to brace roofs and gable end walls based on lessons learned from analyzing the destruction from hurricane Andrew.

Website providing CAD files and drawings of advanced framing details.

Document with the Quality Control Checklist developed as both a guide to assist in the transition to high performance home building, and as a simplified tool to be used as part of any builder's on-site quality control procedures.

Report describing a deep energy retrofit project for a two-family wood framed home located in Belmont, Massachusetts.

Book describing Carpentry and Construction, Construction Materials, Hand Tools, Power Tools, Construction Equipment, Jobsite Safety, and Working Conditions, Building Design and Print reading, Inspections Survey Instruments and Operations, Foundation and Outdoor Slab Construction, Floor, Wall, and...

Report summarizing the key opportunities, gaps, and barriers identified by the national laboratory white papers discussing long-term 50% energy reduction goals.

Fact sheet describing changes made to the 2010 Florida Building Code with regards to wind design loads and requirements.

Webpage describing electric vehicle chargers

A simple three-step guide for homeowners who are looking to replace existing light bulbs with more energy-efficient, higher-performing bulbs.