Library

Report on hybrid ventilation methods for insulated and sealed crawl spaces.

Newsletter containing five articles focused on seismic retrofitting.

Technical report providing site selection guidance for installation of small wind turbines.

Initiatives of smoke-free housing policies in New York State.

Toolkits for residents and owner/managers who live and work in federally assisted housing.

Webpage providing information about design snow loads and a free interactive ground snow load mapping tool for the contiguous United States, as well as snow load calculation methods.

Guidelines to assist builders in designing and constructing homes equipped with a set of features that make the installation of solar energy systems after the completion of the home’s construction easier and less expensive.

The RERH specifications and checklists take a builder and a project design team through the steps of assessing a home’s solar resource potential and defining the minimum structural and system components needed to support a solar energy system.

Specifications to assist builders in designing and constructing homes equipped with a set of features that make the installation of solar energy systems after the completion of the home’s construction easier and less expensive.

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

Standard that covers the minimum performance and acceptance criteria for an air barrier (AB) material or system for framed walls of low-rise buildings with the service life of the building wall in mind. This link directs to a preview of the version of the standard that was published in the year 2011...

Standard specification covering elastomeric cellular preformed gasket and sealing materials. This version of the standard was published in the year 2011 and is available for preview and purchase at the reference link. Other versions of the standard were published in the years 2021, 2015, 2006, and...

Article describing ways to protect roofs from water infiltration by using self-adhering underlayment in vulnerable locations such as roof valleys, eave edges (to help deal with ice dams), rake edges, roofs to vertical walls (such as dormers), sidewall protection, the bottom of dormer valleys, and...

Report recommending strategies and approaches that the Federal government and other stakeholders may take to encourage and aid States and local communities in the adoption of the most current building codes.

Report about the impact on the loads when common safety factors are applied to the load calculation process using two houses that meet the 2009 IECC prescriptive path modeled as the accurate baseline.

Document identifying differences between the requirements for construction documents for high performance housing and the documents that are typically produced for conventional housing.

Report about proper water heater selection developed to provide step-by-step procedures for evaluating preferred cost-effective options for energy efficient water heater alternatives based on local utility rates, climate, and anticipated loads.

Research study providing a comparison of selected retrofit activity typically done, versus that same retrofit activity approached from an integrated high performance remodeling and quality management perspective.

Question and Answer article in Energy Design Update describing the cost and savings benefits of electronically commutated motors (ECMs) for HVAC equipment.

Presentation on urban land use and sustainable building design.

This guide and workbook offers practitioners with the knowledge to properly implement the measurement and documentation procedures required in the ANSI/ACCA 5.

This TechNote provides an overview of building code requirements and best practices for flashing at window and door frames.

A book describing seismic retrofits to help contractors and engineers understand how to properly retrofit a home in a cost-effective manner.

Article describing the risks associated with vented and unvented crawlspaces in different climate zones.

Article describing thermal bridging, construction practices that encourage thermal bridging, and solving thermal bridging through continuous exterior insulation.

Guide describing details that serve as a visual reference for each of the line items in the Thermal Enclosure System Rater Checklist.

Research study investigating the thermal efficiency of fasteners, namely drywall screws and siding nails, in high-performance wood-framed walls.

Article detailing a case study in which thermal mass was used as part of an overall Net Zero solution for a university building.

Report on a project conducted to better understand the current usage of thermostatic radiator valves by key market players in steam and hot water heating and to conduct limited experiments on the effectiveness of new and old thermostatic radiator valves as a means of controlling space temperatures...

Research study describing a detailed 3D computational fluid dynamics model that evaluates the thermal performance of uninsulated wall assemblies.

Document presenting analysis results, focusing on relative humidity (RH) excursions, which are defined as unique events of indoor RH above a threshold.

Report on investigating the effectiveness of using solar thermal water heaters to address heat losses from piping while recirculating water in multifamily buildings.

Guide providing information on controlling attic ductwork sweating.

Guide describing details that serve as a visual reference for each of the line items in the Water Management System Builder Checklist.

A builder checklist guide for the water management of properties with appropriately-designed building technologies.

This text is one of series of supporting documents that provide guidance on implementing the World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines for drinking-water quality; intended to support improvement of water safety within buildings.

Report providing design guidance for wood-framed residential construction in high wind areas where design wind velocity requirements do not exceed 140 miles per hour.

Report describing the best practices that were observed during installations of electric vehicle chargers for residential homes.

Article discussing the risks that can occur from undercutting bedroom doors to provide return airflow from bedrooms, as well as corrective measures that can be taken to address these risks.

A list of exterior building products and materials approved for use in wildland urban interface zoned homes. These products are non-combustible or ignition-resistant.

Webpage documenting a recall of a window shade product.

Presentation about the combustion properties of wood.

Webpage describing burn bans, which wood burning devices are legal in Washington, why wood smoke is harmful to health, and how to reduce the smoke from your wood burning device.