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.

This report outlines research activities that are expected to facilitate the adoption of energy retrofits by remodeling contractors and roofing contractors using retrofit panels which applicable to many existing house designs in most climates and markets.

Document providing guidance to U.S. home builders who want to accept the challenge.

Report summarizing the guidelines for developing and reporting analytical results in a consistent and meaningful manner for all home energy uses.

Research study describing a number of promising foundation and basement insulation strategies that can meet the requirement for better thermal control in colder climates while enhancing moisture control, health, and comfort.

Document providing an example procedure for establishing acceptance-range criteria to assess results from software undergoing BESTEST-EX.

Report describing ventilation system design, including a central fan integrated supply (CFIS) system, made up of a 6-inch outdoor air intake duct connected to the return side of the air handler with a fan cycling control to make sure the fan runs a programmed minimum amount of time.

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 evaluating the accuracy of the regression technique used in 2006 by using the same least-squares regression analysis on data created from hourly energy simulation software.

Document providing an example procedure for establishing acceptance-range criteria to assess results from software undergoing BESTEST-EX.

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 outlining how Smart ventilation controls (SVC) balance energy consumption, comfort, and IAQ by optimizing mechanical ventilation operation to reduce the heating and/or cooling loads, improve management of indoor moisture, and maintain IAQ equivalence according to ASHRAE 62.2.

Fact sheet describing the function of housewrap, its attributes, and common problems associated with its use, including housewrap vs. building paper and housewrap installation; also published in FEMA P-499 “Home Builder’s Guide to Coastal Construction: Technical Fact Sheet Series.”

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.

Fact sheet describing how typical wall moisture barrier systems work, the moisture barrier system and common problems associated with them; also published in FEMA P-499 “Home Builder’s Guide to Coastal Construction: Technical Fact Sheet Series.”

The next generation of building enclosures is a key step toward achieving high-performance goals through decreasing energy load demand and enabling advanced space-conditioning systems. Yet the adoption of high-R enclosures and particularly high-R walls has been a slow-growing trend because...

Document describing a hygrothermal modeling study, including all of the US climate zones, a range of interior humidity levels and numerous arrangements and types of insulation.

Information sheet about mold mitigation.

Report highlighting the evaluation methods used and extent of wind washing found in a study analyzing wind washing in thirty-two two-story homes.

Report presenting the results of a study evaluating retrofit solutions for addressing the effects of wind washing on homes.

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.

Document with information about the most practical methods to achieve whole-wall performance of R-30 or above.

Information sheet describing refrigerant line installation and system startup procedures.

Presentation providing information about correctly installing ductwork in new and existing homes.

Report identifying the steps to take, with the help of a qualified home performance contractor, to seal unwanted air leaks while ensuring healthy levels of ventilation and avoiding sources of indoor air pollution.

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.

Information sheet about insulation retrofits for the hot-dry climate zones.

Information sheet about exterior insulation in the hot-dry climate zones.

Information sheet about HVAC equipment design to maximize energy efficiency in the hot-dry climate zone.

Information sheet describing solar PV upgrade for an existing homes.

Information sheet describing tankless hot water heating systems in existing homes.

Information sheet describing solar hot water systems in existing homes.

Information about a roof retrofit using a metal, cool roof system.

Information sheet describing tankless hot water heating systems in existing homes.

Information sheet about envelope and roof moisture control retrofit for a home.

Information sheet about window retrofit strategies for hot-dry climates.

Report comparing the performance of seven differing types of residential water heating systems in a side-by-side test configuration over a full year period.

Factsheet describing the importance of system charging, superheat and subcooling.

Research study describing demonstration homes that provided a wealth of information for the building community in terms of the science, effort, and cost of increasing the energy efficiency of our nation's housing stock.