Figure 10 - uploaded by Philip R Boudreaux
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Source publication
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is furthering residential energy retrofit research in the mixed-humid climate of East Tennessee by selecting 10 homes and guiding the homeowners in the energy retrofit process. The homeowners pay for the retrofits, and ORNL advises which retrofits to complete and collects post-retrofit data. This effort is in ac...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... Table 6 describes the retrofits that were recommended for the Country home by the ORNL team. The first job that was done by the homeowner was repairing the cathedral ceiling in the living room. The drywall and roof decking had to be removed. The cathedral ceiling and the 2 × 6 kitchen walls were sealed with 2 in. of closed cell spray foam, and then R-13 batts were installed for a final R-value of about R-24 (Figure 9). The attic floor was sealed and fiberglass insulation was blown in for a resulting insulation value of R-50. The crawlspace ceiling was flashed with spray foam. The existing R-19 batt insulation in the attic knee wall was repaired, and then 2 in. of foam board (R-10) was laid on top of the knee wall studs. On top of the foam board about 1⁄2 in. of closed cell spray foam (R-3) was applied (Figure 10). Penetrations in the basement and crawl space walls were sealed, and the band joist was sealed and insulated. For the basement band joist, 2 in. of foam board with 1 in. of closed cell spray foam was used for a resulting R-16. For the crawlspace band joist, 2 in. of foam board with 2 in. of closed cell spray foam was used for a resulting ...
Citations
... In Deep Residential Retrofits in East Tennessee, 10 homeowners were guided through the energy retrofit process. For one particular retrofit experience in this project, the authors stated that for homeowners who are not actively involved in their project or who have little or no knowledge of how to do energy retrofit work correctly, the quality of the work would vary significantly and depend on the knowledge, training, and pride of work of the contractors and construction crews (Boudreaux et al. 2012). The implication of this observation has an impact on the success of the project, as it was also asserted that the quality of the retrofit work would correlate to energy savings (Boudreaux et al. 2012). ...
... For one particular retrofit experience in this project, the authors stated that for homeowners who are not actively involved in their project or who have little or no knowledge of how to do energy retrofit work correctly, the quality of the work would vary significantly and depend on the knowledge, training, and pride of work of the contractors and construction crews (Boudreaux et al. 2012). The implication of this observation has an impact on the success of the project, as it was also asserted that the quality of the retrofit work would correlate to energy savings (Boudreaux et al. 2012). It is then necessary to ensure high-quality construction to reach the expected energy savings proposed in deep energy retrofit projects. ...
Abstract
A case study was conducted on 44 residential homes using both traditional house wrap and ZIP System® systems to measure the overall airtightness and compare estimated energy usages. The labor, material, and O&P costs were analyzed and used to determine the optimal choice for long term benefits in terms of cost and performance. The impact of insulation installation is considered to be a key factor in improving the strategy towards reducing energy consumption. Improved installation practices can affect the airtightness of common wall assemblies to reduce the building energy performance gap and provide insight on how to better allocate resources. A framework was developed to analyze operational costs and building energy performance to address how installation quality is a factor on the return of investment in building construction for heating and cooling systems within the thermal envelope. With this methodology, aggressive energy performance goals will be met while balancing the tradeoff between installation techniques and building systems efficiency based on the introduced Probabilistic Investment Return (PIR) metric.
Keywords: Building Performance, Installation Quality, Energy Savings, Airtightness, Insulation Systems
