In this article, we continue our series of profiles on the Building America research teams—multidisciplinary industry partnerships who work to make high performance homes a reality for all Americans. This month focuses on two of the long-lived Building America teams—Building Science Corporation (BSC) and Consortium for Advanced Residential Buildings (CARB)—that, after 20 years, continue to develop innovative, real-world solutions that help to transform the U.S. housing market.

Building Science Corporation

As the saying goes, “It’s all in a name.” As its name indicates, Building Science Corporation (BSC) explores advanced building science solutions in energy-efficient enclosure, ventilation, and dehumidification systems for residential and commercial buildings. During its 20-year tenure with Building America, BSC has partnered with approximately 250 builders and is responsible for the construction of more than 10,000 Building America houses and 100,000 ENERGY STAR® houses (through its partner MASCO and the Environments for Living program). BSC also offers product design and analysis services for manufacturers of building materials and systems, and develops workshops and technical resources to further educate building engineers about high performance homes.

Through its collaborations with builders—in individual and community-scale projects—BSC emphasizes innovative, replicable strategies that lead to energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and durability, as well as fewer callbacks and increased profits. Along with scores of discrete homes, BSC is active in large-scale efforts such as disaster recovery, utility, and DOE’s Zero Energy Ready Home projects. For example, BSC provided technical assistance for rebuilding Greensburg, Kansas, and a post-Katrina New Orleans project that provided 100 new homes for displaced families. In a pilot program with National Grid, BSC supported the deep energy retrofits of 42 homes, which achieved an average annual source energy use of 40% below the Northeast regional average. As a champion of DOE’s Zero Energy Ready Home program, BSC worked with several builders to construct zero energy homes and evaluated the certification of five test homes to the new program’s standards. BSC is also the recipient of numerous Building America Top Innovation awards—for advanced framing systems, basement insulation systems, unvented conditioned attics and crawlspaces, and low-cost ventilation in production housing, among others.

Joe Lstiburek, Principal of BSC explains, "Identifying builder construction problems and addressing them in an energy-efficient, cost-effective manner is a win-win for everyone. There are almost always beneficial cost tradeoffs that result in lower builder risk and higher performance houses. For example, better window glazing results in downsized mechanical systems; the cost savings on the downsized mechanical systems pays for the upgraded window glazing. Even better, the operating costs are reduced for the homeowner and comfort issues are reduced.” In conjunction with the onsite training provided to builder partners, BSC conducts workshops and develops technical resources on a variety of building science topics, including the EEBA Builder’s Guide series and Water Management Guide, Guide to Attic Air Sealing, and Building America reports and case studies. Through its diverse and prolific body of work, BSC continues to promote the design and construction of homes that are durable, sustainable, economical, and healthy. Visit the BSC website to learn more.

Consortium for Advanced Residential Buildings

The Consortium for Advanced Residential Buildings (CARB), led by Steven Winter Associates, Inc. (SWA), focuses on improving new and existing homes by leveraging new and underutilized technologies and innovative market delivery strategies. The CARB team is grounded in the challenges experienced by builders and developers, and specializes in advanced building systems and whole-house solutions for multifamily and affordable housing. Backed by SWA’s 42 years of experience, the CARB team synthesizes information across technologies and works with stakeholders to understand issues from a variety of perspectives to deliver market-ready solutions for high performance homes.

Throughout its long history with Building America, CARB has stressed collaboration with builder partners to deliver the most cost-effective, innovative, and practical energy-efficiency measures possible. For example, in the Chamberlain Heights affordable retrofit project, CARB worked with the City of Meriden Housing Authority and a developer to renovate 126 apartment units, which resulted in 40%–45% source energy savings over the pre-retrofit conditions. In the multifamily 56th and Walnut: A Philly Gut Rehab project, the team developed an energy solutions package for 11 historic buildings containing 32 total units. The project balanced goals for significant energy efficiency and indoor air quality upgrades with concerns about increased first costs. CARB also applies a systems integration approach to its work in new, affordable, zero energy ready homes. The team provided design and analysis assistance to the Wisdom Way Solar Village, a 20-unit community of energy-efficient duplexes in western Massachusetts, to net homeowners energy cost savings of at least $2,500 per year. CARB provided technical assistance, energy modeling, and testing for several projects that won DOE Housing Innovation Awards, including Preferred Builders’ Performance House; BPC Green Builders, Ferguson Design and Construction, Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services, Singer Village at Brookside Development, AquaZephyr’s EcoVillage, and Murphy Brothers’ Shore Road. CARB’s diverse portfolio also includes energy-efficient “hurricane-resistant” homes for storm-ravaged Florida communities, International Builders Show demonstration homes, Habitat for Humanity projects and a resulting reHabitat Guide for Energy- and Resource-Efficient Retrofit Strategies, and numerous single-family projects across the country.

CARB’s broad scope of research ranges from the development of new technologies and best practices to the optimization of market-ready technologies. The team garnered several Building America Top Innovation awards—for a revolutionary buried and encapsulated ducts strategy for unconditioned attics; moisture research in high-R walls; insulation systems for keeping basements warm, dry, and healthy; and support for zero energy ready single-family homes. The team also investigates multifamily ventilation and compartmentalization strategies, effectiveness of whole-house ventilation systems, heat pump water heaters, hydronic system performance, and air-source heat pump performance in cold climates. As William Zoeller, Senior Architect and Researcher, explains, “CARB’s research into high performance housing over the past nearly two decades has led us to draw many conclusions concerning building design, thermal enclosures, mechanical systems, moisture management, indoor environmental quality, and renewable energy systems. Three big-picture conclusions are: There is no one perfect solution; early planning and whole-housing systems integration is indispensable; and if you can make it simpler, you can make it better.” Visit the CARB website to learn more.

See the Building America Research Team page to view information about other teams.