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.

Fact sheet describing an innovative aerosol-based sealing technique for tightening building envelopes in new homes, involving pressurizing the structure and dispersing an aerosol sealant "fog" to autonomously identify and seal leaks, with real-time feedback through a standard blower door and laptop...

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.

A website providing information on the U.S. Department of Energy's Building America Solution Center, a source for innovations in residential building energy performance, energy efficiency, quality, affordability and comfort for more than 20 years.

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.

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.

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...

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.”

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...

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.”

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.

Fact sheet describing field validations of a smart ventilation system to assess its effectiveness in assisting low-load homes in humid environments by maintaining acceptable indoor humidity conditions while ensuring adequate ventilation and indoor air quality.

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.