Library

A study on how fires spread through exterior building envelopes with discussion on how fires propagate in a rain screen cavity.

Report briefly reviewing past research on the effects of occupant behavior on residential energy use and then covering a two year pilot evaluation of a low cost residential energy feedback system installed in twenty case study homes in Florida.

Report briefly reviewing past research on the effects of occupant behavior on residential energy use and then covering a two year pilot evaluation of a low cost residential energy feedback system installed in twenty case study homes in Florida.

Webpage offering recommendations to homeowners and contractors for retrofitting a home to make it more resistant to wildfires.

Website describing methods for homeowners to prepare their homes to withstand ember attacks and minimize the likelihood of flames or surface fire touching the home or any attachments.

Report providing wildfire protection guidance for homeowners in California.

Brochure describing multiple earthquake safety measures for homeowners to take, including home reinforcement, exterior maintenance, and recovery tips.

Article discussing fire safety for high-rise buildings.

Report designed to help a builder understand quality management and its role in transitioning from conventional to HPH building and remodeling.

Report providing strategies to support occupant behavior changes for enhancing resilience, and to reduce a building's vulnerability to extreme weather, climate change, and loss of power.

Fact sheet describing conditions for wildfire, how a home catches fire, how to create a survivable space, the ideal fire resistant home.

Website describing wildfire related research conducted by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety at the IBHS Research Center.

Free Online Training in Reducing Wildfire Risks to People and Property for Home and Business Owners.

Paper covering a parametric study of foundation heat exchanger-based ground source heat pump systems for several house configurations in a range of European locations, with an emphasis on determining feasible combinations.

A student manual for containing information on residential sprinkler systems.

Report summarizing the results of laboratory testing of 20 advanced power strip products.

Report about a tool developed to enable users to compare a typical 1970s ranch home against an IECC 2009 code-compliant home of the same configuration and against the 70s base case plus retrofits.

Report covering non-combustible continuous exterior insulation and non-combustible roof venting.

Brochure for utility customers describing installation of an excess flow valve to automatically shut off natural gas flow into a home in the event of a gas line rupture.

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...

Fact sheet for natural gas customers describing city’s seismic gas shut-off valve requirements.

Description webpage providing information about home fire safety during sever weather for consumers.

Report summarizing commissioning, short-term testing, and analysis that occurred before, during, and just after the actual retrofit of the Bay Ridge project.

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.

Research study presenting a unique opportunity to both identify and evaluate deep retrofit measures that are practical and potentially cost effective for the retrofit market, as well as review the cost effectiveness of the Passive House design approach for achieving energy savings in deep retrofits.

Literature review from NFPA on the use of insulation to protect the piping in home fire sprinkler systems from freezing conditions.

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.

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

Standard describing methods for testing the airtightness of buildings and HVAC equipment.

Website containing links to key wildfire codes and standards.

ASTM standard for wood-composite decking and guardrail materials under a variety of tests, including fire performance and UV resistance. Available for preview and purchase at the reference link.

Test method designed to calculate an assigned air permeance of flexible sheet or rigid panel-type materials at a reference air pressure differential of 75 Pa which was published in the year 2021 and is available for preview and purchase at the reference link.

Test method providing a rapid means of determining the steady-state thermal transmission properties of thermal insulations and other materials with a high level of accuracy when the apparatus has been calibrated appropriately. This version of the standard was published in the year 2021 and is...

ASTM standard test method for surface burning response of different building materials which was published in the year 2022 and is available for preview and purchase at the reference link.

ASTM standard test method for testing the surface burning response of different building materials which was published in the year 2023 and is available for preview and purchase at the reference link.

Standard that describes the principles for the design of a hot box apparatus and the minimum requirements for the determination of steady state thermal performance of building assemblies when exposed to controlled laboratory conditions. The current version of the standard was published in 2019, and...

Test method designed to obtain reliable values for the WVTR of plastic film and sheeting which was published in the year 2020 and is available for preview and purchase at the reference link.

Report intending to provide useful information as the DOE/BA develops and implements comprehensive communications and outreach strategies for demonstration homes.

Report evaluating a test home built in Atlanta, GA in the mixed-humid climate zone. The report outlines the features of the house, discusses the implementation of the energy efficient design, and presents the results of short-term characterization testing.

Document about NREL's repository of residential building characteristics and historical energy use data, used to improve accuracy of residential energy analysis tools.

Report using data from various sources to characterize the impact on human health and property damage from indoor environmental quality and other hazards.

FSEC certification and testing page for solar systems.

Presentation describing how to make a Corsi-Rosenthal Box for air cleaning.

Article describing a DIY air cleaning system for filtering smoke and viruses.

Report proposing a procedure for estimating the whole opaque wall R-value (whole-wall R-value), independent of system type and construction materials.

Webpage with data on the 20 largest wildfires in California that occurred between the year 1932 and present day.

Online course describing the behavior of wildfires for firefighters.

A report examining the presence, reliability, effectiveness, and impact of sprinkler systems in structure fires.

Report addressing the ever increasing percentage of whole house energy use that is attributable to miscellaneous electricity loads (MELs) and major appliances.