The ARBI team, led by Davis Energy Group of Davis, California, evaluates and demonstrates innovative building technologies, construction techniques, and deployment strategies for new and existing homes in the hot-dry and marine climates. The team also explores the various mechanisms and strategic approaches that can motivate homeowners to invest in home energy upgrades. Working from Davis Energy Group’s 20 years of experience with energy measure optimization, ARBI applies advanced modeling and analysis techniques to identify optimal, cost-effective strategies to achieve large-scale reduction of residential energy use.

Alliance for Residential Building Innovation logo.

ARBI projects have addressed advanced heating, cooling, and water heating systems; ventilation system effectiveness; and high-performance building enclosures. In 2014, the team garnered a Building America 2014 Top Innovation award for its research on HVAC air filter sizing that prompted a change in the California Title 24 energy code. This change will encourage the use of higher efficiency filters without degrading HVAC performance. ARBI also actively supports the DOE Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) program in California. The team helped One Sky Homes—winner of a 2014 Housing Innovation Award—to meet the ZERH criteria while testing several advanced building technologies, including a night ventilation cooling system that cut cooling costs by 98%. ARBI is currently providing support for a project that will become the first ZERH-certified multifamily project in the United States.

The team is also working diligently to help DOE improve ZERH specifications for California and elsewhere. As David Springer, ARBI team manager, explains, “We have coordinated with DOE to modify the air leakage rates for multifamily buildings, to clarify rules for leakage from buried ducts in vented attics, and to identify methods for use of California-approved software for modeling minisplit heat pumps. Also, we are provided details on the California specification for high-performance attics that is under consideration as a proxy for ducts in conditioned space.”

The BARA team, led by Building Media Inc., combines technical and real-world construction experience with communications and outreach expertise to bridge the gap between research and market integration. The BARA team focuses exclusively on improving the energy efficiency of the more than 130 million existing U.S. homes by developing effective communication tools and resources for remodelers and contractors. The BARA team multidisciplinary members—Building Media Inc., the New Jersey Institute of Technology Center for Building Knowledge, and Confluence Communications—also explore specific technology areas that can radically improve home performance.

Research Alliance logo.

BARA communication projects include Building America outreach products and activities (see “What is Building America?”); community-scale Neighborhood Stabilization Program projects in Las Vegas, Nevada; the Cool Energy House demonstration project and a variety of online training materials for industry professionals. BARA’s work to pave the way for accurately valuing energy-efficiency improvements for homes during a real estate appraisal resulted in a Building America 2014 Top Innovation award for the team. BARA-led discussions between the Appraisal Institute and RESNET that resulted in the implementation of the Residential Green and Energy Efficiency Addendum. This agreement helps real estate appraisers consistently and adequately value above-code energy-efficiency improvements in new home construction and remodels.

“The BARA team balances our collective experience in residential research projects with market transformation programs to advance Building America goals and objectives to the broadest possible audience,” says Darren Harris, co-president, Building Media Inc. BARA’s technical and program-specific projects include the Heat Pump Water Heating outreach initiative, a swimming pool pump efficiency study and resulting Building America guidance, evaluation of packages of energy measures used in the  New Jersey Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program, and various demonstration projects across the country.

2014 Top Innovations: Efficient Solutions for HVAC Systems, Manufactured Homes, IAQ, More!

Each year, Building America selects cutting-edge Top Innovations that demonstrate the value of investing in high-performance research and development and guide the industry toward more energy-efficient, healthier, and longer-lasting homes. Here is an overview of five new 2014 Top Innovations:

  • ASHRAE 62.2 Standard Development: Building America research and support were instrumental in developing and gaining adoption of ASHRAE 62.2, a residential ventilation standard that is critical to transforming the U.S. housing industry to high-performance homes.
  • Attic Insulation Technique for Factory-Built Homes: Increasing attic insulation in manufactured housing has been a significant challenge because of cost, production, and transportation constraints. The simplicity of this dense-pack solution to increasing attic insulation R-value promises real hope for widespread industry adoption.
  • HVAC Filter Sizing and Labeling Standard: Research on HVAC air filter sizing prompted a change in the California “Title 24” Energy Code requiring filter manufacturers, HVAC designers, and HERS raters to make changes that will encourage the use of higher MERV filters without degrading HVAC performance.
  • HVAC Cabinet Air Leakage Standard: Building America-funded research by teams and national laboratories resulted in the development of an ASHRAE standard and a standardized testing method for testing the air leakage of HVAC air handlers and furnace cabinets and has spurred equipment manufacturers to tighten the cabinets they use for residential HVAC systems.
  • Green Addendum for Appraisal Reports: This groundbreaking agreement between the Appraisal Institute and RESNET allows RESNET-approved Home Energy Rating System (HERS) software to auto-generate a fact-filled Green and Energy Efficiency Addendum intended for real estate appraisers for every home rated by a RESNET-certified HERS rater.
Man blowing insulation into an attic.

This 2014 Top Innovation profiles a new method of increasing attic insulation R-value that is immediately applicable to nearly 125,000 new manufactured homes built each year.

View the complete list of Top Innovations in the categories of: Advanced Technologies and Practices, House-as-a-Business Case, Effective Guidance and Tools, and Infrastructure Development.

Building America January 21 Webinar: Central Multifamily Water Heating Systems

Building America brings you free monthly webinars highlighting the latest advances in residential building technologies and practices, presented by Building America research team experts. The January webinar will focus on the effective use of central heat pump water heaters (HPWHs) and control systems to reduce the energy use in hot water distribution.

Date/Time: January 21, 2015; 3 - 4:30 p.m. EST
Description: Presenters and specific topics for this webinar include:

  • Elizabeth Weitzel, Alliance for Residential Building Alliance, presenting Multifamily Central Heat Pump Water Heating. The presentation will focus on the findings of an evaluation effort of a nominal 10.5 ton central HPWH installed at the UC Davis West Village Zero Net Energy community, which was monitored from October 2011 through February 2013. Findings from the field monitoring were used to develop and validate a TRNSYS simulation to project performance in various climates.
  • Jordan Dentz and Eric Ansanelli, Advanced Residential Integrated Energy Solutions, presenting Control Strategies to Reduce Energy Consumption of Central Domestic Hot Water (CDWH). CDHW systems are commonly used in multifamily buildings to provide domestic hot water. This presentation will summarize the results of a field study in which two types of CDHW controls—demand control and temperature modulation—were retrofit into four existing multifamily buildings in New York.

Visit the Meetings page to keep current on upcoming webinars and view recordings of past webinars.

DOE Zero Energy Ready Home at International Builders Show

The 2015 International Builders Show (IBS), held on January 20-22, 2015, in Las Vegas, Nevada, is the largest annual light construction show in the world. This premier event features extensive product exhibits and an innovative educational program of more than 100 sessions with topics ranging from sales and marketing to construction and codes. While at IBS, don’t miss the DOE Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) session on January 20 from 1 - 2 p.m., which will present the latest in building science and market positioning to help builders differentiate ZERHs in the marketplace. It will also include a tour of the Building America Solution Center, an online resource providing a wealth of building science and energy-efficiency resources.

Be a Citizen Scientist! Help Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Study Indoor Air Quality

Scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) have spent decades exploring how everyday activities affect indoor air quality. Their recent study found that cooking without proper kitchen ventilation often produces air pollutant levels in homes that exceed outdoor air quality standards.

As a result, LBNL has launched its first Citizen Scientist Project—the Range Hood Roundup—to gather information about cooking patterns and kitchen ventilation in U.S. homes. Please help this effort by completing a short survey. LBNL will use the information you provide to develop recommendations for improving indoor air quality and health through better building codes and product standards. The survey runs through September 30, 2015.

This Month’s Residential Successes: 2014 Top Innovations in Action

This month’s residential successes point to Building America-supported projects that incorporate 2014 Top Innovation technologies and practices.

Exterior of a couple of AquaZephr's EcoVillage Phase 3 homes.

AquaZephyr's EcoVillage Phase 3 homes were built to DOE Zero Energy Ready Home standards, which meet all of the requirements of ENERGY STAR Certified Homes V.3, EPA's Indoor airPLUS and WaterSense, and insulation requirements of the 2012 IECC.

Mark Your Calendars for February DOE Zero Energy Ready Home Trainings

Register now for this two-part DOE Zero Energy Ready Home training coming up in February:

High-Performance Home Sales Training Part I and Part II
Dates/Times: February 4 and 12, 2015; noon - 1 p.m. EST (same time for both days)
Description: Sales … Businesses cannot succeed if the value of their products or services is not effectively conveyed to consumers. The housing industry knows how to engage consumer interest in highly visible amenities like larger homes, granite counters, and luxurious master bedroom suites; however, the skills needed to sell the invisible value associated with high-performance homes have proven to be more elusive. This training will address that challenge, beginning with the context for Zero Energy Ready Homes (including three hard trends suggesting a growing interest in this level of home performance), and five key sales concepts along with the skills, tools, and practice needed to implement them. Speaker: Sam Rashkin, U.S. DOE.

Call for Papers: 2015 Energy & Environmental Building Alliance Conference: Oct. 6-8, 2015

Save the date for the 2015 Energy & Environmental Building Alliance (EEBA) Conference & Expo, held October 6-8, 2015, in Denver, Colorado! EEBA has a 33-year history of educating builders, architects, engineers, and trade professionals in the building science behind high-performance homes. Presentation abstracts are currently being accepted; the deadline is February 27, 2015, 5 p.m. Central time.

Also, EEBA will host the 2015 Housing Innovation Awards, which recognize builders who demonstrate energy-saving solutions that radically improve the energy performance of our nation’s homes. See the 2014 winners. And don’t miss the Building America/ZERH educational track. Details will be available soon.

New Publications from Building America

The Building America Publications Library offers an extensive collection of technical reports, measure guidelines, case studies, and other resources to help you boost energy efficiency in new and existing homes. On the library page, you can subscribe to the RSS feed that delivers reports as they are published. Also, the Building America Solution Center links you to expert building science and energy-efficiency information based on Building America research results. Here are samples of our most recent publications:

Conway Street Apartments: A Multifamily Deep Energy Retrofit
Through recent research efforts, the Consortium for Advanced Residential Buildings team has been evaluating strategies and technologies that can make dramatic improvements in energy performance in multifamily buildings. In this project, the team helped to transform a 100-year-old empty school building into 12 high-performance apartments with low energy costs. The advanced features included an excellent thermal envelope of closed-cell spray foam, triple-pane windows, ductless heat pumps, a solar thermal hot water system, and a photovoltaic system.

New Whole-House Solutions Case Study: Lancaster County Career and Technology Center Green Home 3 - Mount Joy, Pennsylvania
This case study describes a unique vocational program at Lancaster County Career Technology Center in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, where high school students are gaining hands-on construction experience in building high-performance homes with help from Building America team, Home Innovation Research Labs. This collaboration resulted in the Green Home 3, the third in a series of high-performance homes for Apprentice Green, which achieved a 44% whole-house energy savings over the Building America New Construction B10 Benchmark, DOE Zero Energy Ready Home (formerly Challenge Home) certification, and National Green Building Standard Gold-level certification.

Analysis of Pre-Retrofit Building and Utility Data
Building America team IBACOS analyzed pre-retrofit daily utility data to sort homes by energy consumption, allowing for better targeting of homes for physical audits. Following ASHRAE Guideline 14 normalization procedures, electricity consumption of 1,166 all electric production-built homes was modeled. The homes were in two communities—one built in the 1970s and the other in the mid-2000s.

Cost Analysis of Roof-Only Air Sealing and Insulation Strategies on 1 ½- Story Homes in Cold Climates
The External Thermal and Moisture Management System (developed by the NorthernSTAR team), typically seen in deep energy retrofits, is a valuable approach for the roof-only portions of existing homes, particularly the 1½-story home. It is effective in reducing energy loss through the building envelope, improving building durability, reducing ice dams, and providing opportunities to improve occupant comfort and health.

Additional reports and case studies published recently:
Technology Solutions Case Study: Selecting Ventilation Systems for Existing Homes
Residential Mechanical Precooling
Reducing Energy Use in Existing Homes by 30%: Learning From Home Performance with ENERGY STAR
New Whole-House Solutions Case Study: Meeting DOE Challenge Home Program Certification - Chicago, Illinois; Denver, Colorado; Devens, Massachusetts
Technology Solutions Case Study: Predicting Envelope Leakage in Attached Dwellings
Distribution and Room Air Mixing Risks to Retrofitted Homes
Duct System Flammability and Air Sealing Fire Separation Assemblies in the International Residential Code.

Visit the Building America Publications Library to access the entire catalog of publications to help improve the efficiency of new and existing homes.

Want to learn more about Building America or help us spread the word about the program? View the video, “What is Building America?” on DOE’s YouTube channel to learn about how Building America aims to bridge the gap between homes with high energy costs and homes that are healthy, durable, and energy efficient.

Please forward this announcement to colleagues who may be interested in subscribing to future updates about Building America.