Library

Part I of the Guide addresses walls constructed with 2x6 wood frame studs, wood structural panel (WSP) sheathing as exterior sheathing, gypsum board as interior sheathing, and a cladding system installed over WSP sheathing in low-rise residential buildings up to three stories in height.

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

Article describing research encouraging use of exterior insulation to warm interior sheathing surfaces in walls and roof assemblies to reduce the likelihood of condensation during cold weather

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

Article describing the use of whole-house fans to provide cooling in the region surrounding Sacramento, CA.

Report providing recommendations to builders regarding how to reduce cooling loads, use air-circulation fans, natural ventilation, window and building design for natural ventilation, and whole-house fans.

Short report providing tips on how to reduce heat gain and passively cool a home.

Report focusing on building envelopes that have been enhanced with phase change materials (PCMs), which can simultaneously reduce total cooling loads and shift peak-hour loads.

Standard describing prediction, mitigation, and reduction of moisture damage to the building envelope, materials, components, systems, and furnishings, depending on climate, construction type, and HVAC system operation; the webstore allows preview or full purchase.

Job Process sheet for the manufactured housing industry showing how to cut insulation batts to fit wall cavities in a factory production environment.

Guidance document on deep energy retrofits.

Article from Green Building Advisor on strategies to take when building homes to reduce the need for air conditioning, including insulation, windows, site selection, and roofing.

The main principle of smart ventilation used in this study is to shift ventilation from time periods with large indoor-outdoor temperature differences, to periods where these differences are smaller, and their energy impacts are expected to be less.

Research report describing the development of standardized test methods for PM2.5 and CO2 sensors enabling reliable, low-cost indoor air quality monitoring and improvement.

Information about dense pack, cellulose insulation.

Article describing earthship homes.

Bulletin describing the components of ECM motors and comparing their efficiency with PSC motors.

The objective of this research was to quantify the field performance of wood-frame walls clad with a variety of common claddings in a mixed-humid climate.

Report describing an investigation into multiple occupancy-based ventilation control strategies and the associated energy savings.

Report on problems and solutions with EIFS stucco wall cladding systems.

This study evaluates the energy, humidity and indoor air quality implications of residential ventilation cooling in all US IECC climate zones.

Discussion of structural thermal resistance.

Website from the U.S. Department of Energy providing consumers with information on saving energy and using renewable energy technologies.

Technical report evaluating the energy savings potential of radiative cooling technologies, particularly photonic 'selective emittance' materials.

Factsheet describing the benefits of purchasing and installing ENERGY STAR rated fans and ventilation products.

Program criteria for residential exhaust fans used for ventilation.

Information sheet with details on a building enclosure designed for Albuquerque, NM, as an example for building enclosures built for hot-dry and mixed-dry climates.

Information sheet that summarizes Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) construction including advantages and disadvantages of this construction strategy.

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 detailing the effects of replacing PSC motors with more efficient, variable-speed motors.

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.

Report on the field evaluation of whole-building approaches and estimation of the relative contributions of select technologies toward reducing energy use related to space conditioning in new manufactured homes.

Journal article reporting on field experience of unvented cathedralized (UC) attics in several environments in the United States.

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.

Article describing methods of smoke control in buildings.

Article describing issues with attic ventilation fans and why the state of Georgia residential code does not allow plug-in attic ventilation fans.

Report about opportunities for ventilation when traditional methods are limited by weather conditions or by contaminants in the outdoor air.

Document that gives a step-by-step approach for designing attachments for cladding materials through foam sheathing.

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.

Report describing the use of fresh air ventilation systems to eliminate the formation of icicles and ice dams along the eaves of roofs.

Report about indoor air quality related to indoor mold growth.