Energy Conservation in Historic Structures: An Information/Awareness Bulletin

摘要

An initial investigation into the assessment of energy conserving features of selected historic structures of the US is presented. Emphasis was on the collection of site-specific data, concerned with 18th to 20th century historic structures and their predominantly passive energy conservation features. The US was divided into 4 climatic bioregions - hot-humid; temperate; hot-arid; and cool northern regions. Research information was compiled for each of the four climatic regions in separate chapters. Each chapter begins with an introduction to the climatic region i.e. its inherent climatic/physiographic characters and a brief discussion of the social/cultural history. From there each chapter discusses the four emphasis areas (ventilation, cooling, etc.) as they relate to the specific climatic region. Features were discussed according to their prevalence and specific reference is made to sites in which the features were displayed. Each chapter then continues by presenting two in-depth case studies in which the energy conserving features of a specific site are explored in greater depth. Finally, each chapter includes a complete list of all of the sites visited in that region (and information such as location and whether the site is open to the public) as well as an annotated bibliography tailored to the specific character of that region. Following the four regional chapters is a summary chapter which attempts to synthesize any similarities across all four regions as well as highlight the unique aspects inherent to each specific regional context. In addition, there is a brief discussion of the relevance of this type of data collection and analysis to the body of knowledge now available in the area of energy conservation.