Library

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.

Document describing three methods for elevating a home out of the flood zone.

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

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

This Best Practices Manual is the product of Hammer & Hand’s ongoing work to document and internally codify our standard operating procedures for construction practice.

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.

Guidance document providing BA research teams and partners with specific information and approaches to identifying and overcoming potential barriers to Building America (BA) innovations arising in and/or stemming from codes, standards, and rating methods.

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.

Report summarizing research results for the 30% energy savings level and demonstrates that lead builders can successfully provide 30% homes in the Marine Climate Region on a cost-neutral basis.

Website providing CAD files and drawings of advanced framing details.

Document detailing how to build radon-resistant homes.

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.

Report outlining the steps developers can take to create high-performance standards on a community-wide scale.

Research study comparing various retrofit models in Wisconsin to evaluate performance in terms of savings per home and program cost per home to assess the relative cost effectiveness of each program design.

Two hourly energy simulation software, BEopt and Energy Gauge USA, were compared to ensure accuracy and evaluate agreement on the impact of various energy efficiency improvements.

Website providing building science based guidance and training for residential construction.

Guidance document on deep energy retrofits.

Part of a larger LBNL report (Deep Energy Retrofit Guidance for the Building America Solutions Center), the Design and Construction Process chapter provides detailed guidance for each process phase: pre-planning, planning, construction, test-out and post-occupancy.

Part of a larger LBNL report (Deep Energy Retrofit Guidance for the Building America Solutions Center), the Lessons Learned chapter focuses on successful deep energy retrofit projects throughout the U.S.

Part of a larger LBNL report (Deep Energy Retrofit Guidance for the Building America Solutions Center), the Occupant Behavior chapter discusses how to assess homeowner behavior patterns and use these patterns to enhance overall energy savings.

Part of a larger LBNL report (Deep Energy Retrofit Guidance for the Building America Solutions Center), the Reducing costs and Increasing Cost-Effectiveness chapter provides suggestions for controlling deep retrofit costs, including both 'do's' and 'don'ts'.

Report describing the progress toward and issues related to developing a usable, standardized, empirical data-based software accuracy test suite.

Website for finding policies and incentives by state for renewables and efficiency.

Journal article presenting a discussion of the state-of-the- art in electricity management in smart homes, the various enabling technologies that will accelerate this concept, and topics around consumer behavior with respect to energy usage.

Document providing a resource to help contractors renovate historic houses, while addressing issues such as building durability, indoor air quality, and occupant health, safety, and comfort.

ENERGY STAR factsheet describing the HVAC Quality Installation Program

Section 608 establishes EPA’s National Recycling and Emission Reduction Program designed to reduce emissions related to maintaining, servicing, repairing, and disposing of air conditioning or refrigeration equipment.

Expert meeting describing meeting details for key innovations for adding energy efficiency upgrades to maintenance projects.

Report presenting the process of a residential retrofit project for houses in the states of Florida and Alabama, including findings at the time of reporting and highlights of the first home to meet the target HERS Index of 70.

Report describing a project focused on the use of home energy ratings as a tool to promote energy retrofits in existing homes.

Report outlining the energy upgrade package implemented in Ft. Benning, GA, Indianhead Townhomes project and the findings of the Southface Energy Institute's post-renovation analysis.

Report detailing field walk-through evaluations, energy simulations for projected savings with exterior insulation upgrades, building envelope energy improvement cost estimates, and installation and maintenance of monitoring equipment and data.

Document providing guidance about building healthy homes using building science principles.

Research study investigating the factors influencing consumer adoption of HEDs and evaluating the resulting electricity consumption.

Website blog with guidance about calculating heat-loss.

Book providing project management guidance in maintaining satisfactory indoor air quality (IAQ) of occupied buildings undergoing renovation or construction.

Journal article detailing laboratory and simulation studies quantifying the impact that heat pump and air conditioner installation faults have on system capacity and efficiency.

Report discussing the importance of durability and energy efficiency in building construction.

Report using a field test plan to evaluate the success of implementing energy efficiency upgrades at the community scale incorporating whole-house systems integrated measures package (SIMP).

Article describing the flashing of roofs and what to look for, targeted at home inspectors.

Report describing an analysis method for determining optimal residential energy efficiency retrofit packages and applies the analysis method to a 1960s-era home in eight U.S. cities.

Article describing mulching with lawn clippings.

Report discussing development of scopes of work and quality management for builders in mixed-humid climates.