ENERGY EFFICIENT NEW HOUSING IN HOT, HUMID FLORIDA: BUILDING AMERICA EXAMPLES

摘要

Energy used in U.S. homes comprises 22% of the U.S. primary energy consumption and is a significant contributor to global wanning. With rising energy costs, household energy consumption is an economic concern in most households. Energy efficient new construction can contribute to reducing greenhouse gases and improving the economics. The U.S. Department of Energy's Building America (BA) program, through competitively selected research teams, works with site and factory built home builders to deploy high performance energy efficient new housing in prototypes as well as in community scale. A measure of a home's energy efficiency is the HERS Index which compares a home's calculated energy use to that of a reference home of the same size and in the same climate. An index of 100 is close to minimum typical code and an index of 0 implies a zero energy home. BA homes typically have an index of 70 or lower. rnConstruction features, innovations and measured data from 155 BA homes built by factory and site builders in Florida are presented. Technologies featured include cool metal roofs, unvented attics, radiant barriers, wide overhangs to shade large glass areas, low-emissivity low solar heat gain windows, right sized and high efficiency air conditioners and furnaces, efficient air distribution systems, positive pressure mechanical ventilation and solar water heaters. For each home the appropriate technologies are incorporated through a systems engineering process. It is not enough to only incorporate technology on a few homes. Commitment from the top decision makers as well as significant sales and marketing efforts need to be made to increase the market share of energy efficient housing.