Library

A guidebook helping builders in hot-humid climates design and construct homes for energy efficiency, durability, health, safety, and comfort.

Report describing measures that builders in mixed-humid climates can use to build homes that have whole-house energy savings of 40% over the Building America benchmark with no added overall costs for consumers.

Fact sheet poster describing how to add exterior, continuous, rigid insulation to the exterior walls when replacing siding on an existing home.

Document providing guideance and considerations for duct design in an energy efficient house.

Report describing methodology to assess and improve the accuracy of whole building energy analysis for residential buildings.

Article describing selecting insulation for minimizing condensation risks.

Guide describing measures that builders in the cold and very cold climates can take to build homes that have whole-house energy savings of 40% over the Building America benchmark with no added overall costs for consumers.

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.

Document about testing software predictions of retrofit energy savings in existing homes.

Design guide providing solutions and tools for designing central heat pump water heater systems in multifamily and other commercial buildings.

Report summarizing the key opportunities, gaps, and barriers identified by the national laboratory white papers discussing long-term 50% energy reduction goals.

Report about a hybrid condensing water heater (thermal efficiency = 0.973, energy factor = 0.95) installed in an occupied home in Sacramento, California, and monitored for one year to determine the actual in situ efficiency.

Fact sheet poster describing benefits and qualification of U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) certified Zero Energy Ready Homes and providing eight examples of certified homes.

Document providing a resource to help contractors renovate historic houses, while addressing issues such as building durability, indoor air quality, and occupant health, safety, and comfort.

Fact sheet poster describing the certification of window attachment products such as storm windows, roller shades, cellular shade, and solar screens by the Attachment Energy Rating Council (AERC).

Document presenting a simple starting point to determine the most cost-effective Energy Savings Measure Packages (ESMP) for existing homes to achieve 15% and 30% savings in 37 locations across the United States.

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

Expert meeting held to discuss simplified space conditioning systems in low load homes, including the relationship between advanced thermal enclosures, space conditioning systems and comfort.

Information sheet with an analysis of mini split heat pump systems.

Report describing a simple and general way to generate House Simulation Protocol (HSP)-consistent internal sensible and latent loads in unoccupied homes.

Document providing supplemental information for code enforcement professionals about header hangers in bearing walls.

Report providing information about energy-efficient heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) equipment options to help homeowners cut their energy use, reduce their carbon footprint, and increase their homes comfort, health, and safety.

Report presenting lab evaluation of five heat pump water heaters available in the US market today.

Report proposing mini-split heat pumps as a new retrofit option to replace resistance heating in the Pacific Northwest.

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

Report describing the sealing and insulating of HVAC duct systems in existing homes.

Document illustrating guidelines for efficient installation of interior duct systems in new housing.

Report covering the fundamental waterproofing strategies for tub and shower assemblies.

Report describing an analysis method for determining optimal residential energy efficiency retrofit packages and applies the analysis method to a 1960s-era home in eight U.S. cities.

Document providing supplemental information for code enforcement professionals about headers in nonbearing walls.

Report providing information about improving the energy efficiency and long-term durability of the buildings that are being reconstructed post Katrina in New Orleans.

Technical report describing research aimed to provide window manufacturers with foundational guidance for installing windows in walls with continuous insulation (CI), addressing critical aspects such as evaluating common installation methods, establishing acceptance criteria for window performance...

Report describing the key findings from the first third-party field validation of 120-volt heat pump water heater (HPWH) technology, addressing the significant barriers to their adoption and emphasizing their potential role in reducing carbon emissions from residential water heating.

Fact sheet poster describing an online tool offered within the Building America Solution Center which provides construction guidance for builders and contractors in building and renovating homes to be more resistant to natural disasters such as hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes and wildfires, etc.

Research study about two test homes that are examined with the goal of providing case studies that could be applied to other similar New England homes.

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.

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.

Fact sheet poster describing a series of fact sheets and checklists for homeowners to share with contractors to help achieve cost-effective, energy-efficient retrofits for dozens of common home renovation projects.

Fact sheet poster describing a DOE tool that walks homeowners through a series of simple questions to produce a list of retrofit recommendations to improve the energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and durability of the homeowners’ home, while also lowering their carbon footprint.

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

Fact sheet poster describing the energy efficiency and comfort benefits of thin triple-pane windows as compared to standard triple-pane and double-pane windows.

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.

Fact sheet describing the requirements for EPA WaterSense certified kitchen faucets that highlights flow rate specifications, efficiency code standards, local requirements, faucet types and regulations for building and verifying a labeled faucet to ensure it meets the quality and water management...

Fact sheet poster describing and comparing the energy-saving and comfort benefits of window attachment options such as low-emissivity storm windows, automated blinds, cellular shades, and solar screens, etc.