Library

This webpage provides an interactive walk-through of the installation of a heat pump water heater in a home in Massachusetts, including how-to videos of the installation, video interviews with the homeowners, installer, and utility program partners, and visual tours of the home before and after...

Report about promoting energy efficiency for Hilton Head Island.

Report describing as-found interior platform return plenums, the magnitude of their contribution to the total amount of duct leakage, and techniques and results of retrofits executed by the HVAC trade during equipment replacement.

Report describing the results of a 21-home field study investigating the effectiveness and failure rates of whole-house mechanical ventilation systems installed in Florida homes over the last 15 years.

Research report discussing the reduction of HVAC energy consumption to meet U.S. greenhouse gas targets and DOE's energy-efficient building goals. It introduces iComfort, an IoT-based system for optimizing home comfort and energy savings.

Information sheet about efficiency and health benefits of MERV filters.

Article describing air leakage in buildings.

Report summarizing results of testing emerging combo water heating technologies under controlled laboratory operations, that differentiate the performance of the various packaged equipment configurations being offered.

Report providing information about laboratory testing of four residential window air conditioners.

Report documenting the measured performance of six residential ENERGY STAR vapor compression dehumidifiers.

Report describing research conducted to support California’s Title 24, Part 6 Building Energy Efficiency Standards by analyzing the impact of installation location and ventilation on heat pump water heater (HPWH) performance, emphasizing the need for proper installation to maximize efficiency...

Report on whole-house and spot ventilation strategies for improved indoor air quality.

Report on the long-term performance of mini-split heat pumps.

Report presenting long-term evaluation results from a hot-dry climate project that examines thermal and HVAC performance in a highly efficient home.

Document presenting a cost effective method that was used by four builders in the Gainesville, FL area to construct interior ducts in over a dozen site built homes.

Report identifying the target market for solar water heaters and potential pathways and cost/performance targets that must be met for these systems to realize large energy savings.

This webpage provides an interactive walk-through of the installation of a heat pump water heater in a home in Maine, including how-to videos of the installation, video interviews with the homeowners, installer, and utility program partners, and visual tours of the home before and after installation...

If your kitchen has a powerful exhaust fan, it may be pulling air down your chimney or water-heater flue.

Report focusing on managing the driving forces that move air and water vapor across the building envelope.

Standard technical manual with information about HVAC balancing, testing air and hydronic systems.

Guidebook providing useful examples of high performance retrofit techniques for the building enclosure of wood frame residential construction in a cold and somewhat wet climate.

Document providing information on the impact of various defects and the potential energy savings that can result from proper maintenance, and describing a two-step process for diagnosing and correcting faults. This document is targeted towards home performance contractors who are relatively...

Document covering two fundamental retrofit strategies for air sealing around air handling systems that are located within the living space in an enclosed closet.

Project discussing buried or encapsulated ducts and their pros and cons.

Document pertaining to design and application guidance for combination space and tankless domestic hot water heating systems used in residential buildings, based on field evaluation, testing, and industry meetings.

Report describing the installation and operation of forced-air heating and domestic hot water combi systems in residential homes.

Report providing step-by-step instructions for heating contractors and hydronic designers for selecting the proper control settings to maximize system performance and improve response time when using a thermostat setback.

Report about evaporative condensers, to provide information on a cost-effective solution for energy and demand savings in homes with cooling loads.

Document covering installation of high efficiency gas furnaces, including when to install a high efficiency gas furnace as a retrofit measure, how to identify and address risks, and steps to follow for the selection and installation process.

Report providing guidance on how to implement a compact duct system inside a plenum truss bulkhead of a one-story, slab-on-grade home.

Report describing the use of passive vents as a source of outdoor air in multifamily buildings.

Document covering the technical aspects of buried and insulated ducts (BEDs), as well as the advantages, disadvantages, and risks of BEDs compared to alternative strategies.

Report describing the sealing and insulating of HVAC duct systems in existing homes.

This document addresses adding—or improving—mechanical ventilation systems to existing homes. The purpose of ventilation is to remove contaminants from homes either directly or by dilution. This report discusses where, when, and how much ventilation is appropriate in a home, including some...

Document intending to put some context and structure around the process of balancing and tuning one-pipe steam systems to help practitioners begin to garner the potential in energy savings that this measure presents.

Document illustrating guidelines for efficient installation of interior duct systems in new housing.

Document developed to help residential builders and retrofitters transition from tank-type water heaters to tankless water heaters.

Guide describing proper application, design, and installation of mechanical ventilation cooling systems for homes located in hot-dry and cold-dry climates, as well as a means of understanding the benefits, costs, and tradeoffs of these systems.

Report describing the most cost-effective ventilation and indoor air quality solutions for multifamily homes that meet ASHRAE 62.2-2016.

Research study analyzing measured energy savings from a moderate retrofit by comparing post-retrofit performance with measured pre-retrofit monitored data.

Research study outlining results of monitoring a low temperature heat pump.

Web resource that lays out the pre-work considerations, methods and finishes for installing mechanical insulation.

Standard that prescribes a testing method to determine the efficiency of space heating and/or cooling thermal distribution systems under seasonal and design conditions. This version of the standard was published in the year 2014, and is available for preview and purchase at the reference link. The...

Standard establishing a test procedure for evaluating the performance of air-cleaning devices as a function of particle size. This is the current version of the standard, which was published in the year 2017, and is available for preview and purchase at the reference link. The ASHRAE bookstore also...

This paper discusses model validation using data from three thermosiphon systems.

Book with indepth information about hydronic systems for residential and commercial buildings.

Conference paper making the case that moving ducts to conditioned space saves energy, is practical for production builders (when accompanied by careful pre-planning), and creates significant andmarketable energy savings for homebuyers.

Study in which a central heat pump water heater system was monitored in detail and used to create a model for assessing similar systems in various climates.

This report is designed to meet ASHRAE 62.2-2010/2013 and ANSI/ACCA’s 5 QI-2015 protocol, thereby improving the performance of HVAC equipment in new homes when compared to homes built to minimum code.