Library

Research study estimating potential energy savings relative to conventional ducted air distribution, and identifying equipment requirements, costs, and barriers.

Research report describing study of interior and exterior air sealing techniques to stop ice dams in five 1.5-story retrofit homes conducted by the NorthernSTAR Building America Partnership team run by University of Minnesota.

Brochure intended to provide readers with a working knowledge of residential heating and cooling duct systems.

Research study discussing how housewraps restrict or permit the passage of water molecules based on size, but cannot control the direction in which the water vapor molecules move.

Brochure providing information about flashing in all cimates.

Brochure with information about ducts in conditioned space.

Information sheet about reservoir claddings.

Information sheet about sealing combustion appliances to ensure good indoor air quality.

Information sheet providing recommendations on the installation of vapor control layers.

Information sheet providing information about vapor management in building assemblies.

Information sheet providing details on the vapor permeance of different types of materials used in building assemblies.

Research study about key sustainability concepts, durability, energy efficiency and new flood resistant design.

Case study about Artistic Homes of Albuquerque, New Mexico, the first home builder in the United States to offer true net zero energy construction to the average home buyer on every home it builds.

Expert meeting focusing on identifying gaps and barriers in combustion safety that need to be addressed by future research, and to develop data-driven technical recommendations for code updates so that a common approach for combustion safety can be adopted by all members of the building energy...

Document describing the Building America research benchmark for the residential building program.

This report will review, and summarize the current state of understanding and research into enclosures with higher thermal resistance, so-called “High-R Enclosures.” Recommendations are provided for further research.

Report on a simplified test procedure for combustion safety that is easier to implement and should produce fewer false positives than the previous procedure.

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

Case study describing foundation wall moisture studies at a research facility in Minnesota run by Building America team NorthernSTAR.

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.

Research study that utilizes EnergyPlus equipped with the moisture capacitance model to analyze the indoor relative humidity in three home types.

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.

Research study documenting market-ready energy solutions to improve the efficiency of new affordable housing in the marine climate of Washington State.

Research study examining the effective moisture penetration depth (EMPD) model and its suitability for building simulations.

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.

Research study searching for combinations of existing technologies that could enable a minimally invasive, cost-competitive, easily deployable method of upgrading soil-side foundation insulation in existing buildings.

Case study describing novel technique for installing exterior spray foam on foundation walls that uses high-pressure water sprayer and a “hydro vac” to remove dirt along the foundation wall.

Expert Meeting about interior insulation retrofit of mass masonry wall assemblies held on July 30, 2011.

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.

Information sheet about groundwater control.

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.

Research study presenting results of an existing home monitoring project designed to measure wall cavity moisture characteristics.

Website providing information on low-energy and standard cooling systems, with a focus on saving energy.

Report exploring four questions to determine the level of risk associated with adding drained exterior insulation to the exterior of an existing home during an energy retrofit.

Report presenting system design packages for cold and mixed-humid climates.

The study described in this white paper is based on building energy modeling with an important focus on the indoor humidity impacts of ventilation.

Report with guidance for installing windows with foam sheathing on wood-frame walls.

Fact sheet describing the newly developed Ventilation-Integrated Comfort System (VICS) that reduces space requirements and eliminates costly ductwork for separate heating, cooling, and ventilation systems, all while enhancing performance, addressing the demand for energy-efficient homes, and...

Article discussing indoor water management.

Report targeting the growing number of homes utilizing deep retrofit measures and new construction practices to realize sufficiently lower infiltration levels that require mechanical ventilation as prescribed by ASHRAE Standard 62.2.

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

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

Document describing good practices for insulating basements in new and existing homes.

Measure Guideline research report providing simple, long term, and durable solutions when using tapes and flashing membranes in conjunction with the exterior face of rigid polymeric foam sheathing to create the drainage plane of a wall system.