Passive-Solar and Low-Energy Building Design. Residential Conservation Demonstration Project. Final Report

摘要

This project demonstrated the potential of selected passive solar design techniques for reducing the electrical power consumption of typical Florida residences. Six existing residences in the Central Florida area were selected and retrofitted by standard architectural and construction practices to permit them to be more efficiently air conditioned within the Florida environment. Each residence was studied to determine which energy saving concept would be most appropriate and cost effective relative to its architecture and construction details. The primary concepts included vented skin walls and roofs, exterior wall insulation, radiant barrier roof, and attic ridge vents. Each residence was also equipped with an instrumentation system to monitor and record, at 15-minute intervals, temperature data and power consumption. One residence was also equipped to record ground and ambient temperatures, ambient relative humidity and solar insolation. Other data collected included the resident's response to the architectural modification, their life style and historical power consumption. Each energy conservation design was also tested at the Florida Solar Energy Center in the Passive Cooling Laboratory. This involved installation and instrumentation of each wall/roof design in the building and collection of temperature, radiation, humidity and heat flow data under controlled conditions. The results of the two studies were correlated using a thermal resistance-capacitance network model. The results showed the most cost effective wall treatment was the vented skin design followed by exterior insulation. On the roof, the radiant barrier was most effective, followed by the vented skin-ridge vent treatment. The cooling season performance for the field residences showed a high savings of 37% with an overall average of 13% of the total residence monthly power billing. (ERA citation 09:005878)