National Renewable Energy Laboratory/Habitat for Humanity Zero Energy Home: A Cold Climate Case Study for Affordable Zero Energy Homes

Description

The design of this 1,280-square-foot, three-bedroom Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver zero energy home carefully combines envelope efficiency, efficient equipment, appliances and lighting, and passive and active solar features to reach the zero energy goal. The home was designed with an early version (July 22, 2004) of the BEOpt building optimization software; DOE2 and TRNSYS were used to perform additional analysis. This engineering approach was tempered by regular discussions with Habitat construction staff and volunteers. These discussions weighed the applicability of the optimized solutions to the special needs and economics of a Habitat house, moving the design toward simple, easily maintained mechanical systems and volunteer-friendly construction techniques. A data acquisition system was installed in the completed home to monitor its performance. The home's energy performance was monitored for 10 years. A comprehensive report on the home was done after the first 2 years of monitoring and a follow-up ACEEE paper on the project including 10 years of performance data was presented in 2016.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
33 This report is the most comprehensive report on the project. It includes description of home design process, construction, costs, and first 2 years of performance data. Various reports on this project were also published under ASES (2006), ASHRAE (2008), and ACEEE (2016) and presented at EEBA (2015). https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy08osti/43188.pdf
33 This 2016 report presents and discusses 10 years of performance data for the NREL/Habitat zero energy home. https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy08osti/42591.pdf
53 This spreadsheet contains all the 60-minute raw data for the NREL-Habitat Zero Energy Home as well as extensive analysis and graphics. This spreadsheet was used as the basis for the 2016 ACEEE report on the project. https://data.openei.org/files/5176/Habitat%20ZEH%201-hour%20May%202016%20-%20Used%20for%20AEEE%20paper%20draft.xlsx
33 Case Study in Long-Term Performance of Zero Energy Homes Measured Performance of the NREL/Habitat Zero Energy Home over 9 Years This presentation contains background info on the project and charts on the performance over nine years. This presentation was the basis for the shorter presentation that was given at EEBA in Denver in 2015 by Craig Christensen and Paul Kreischer. https://data.openei.org/files/5176/NREL-Habitat%20ZEH_EEBA%20presentation.pdf

Tags

  • utility-power-grid-storage
  • superinsulation
  • building-america
  • new-construction
  • buildingamerica
  • affordable-housing
  • single-family-detached
  • zero-energy-home
  • residential
  • passive-solar
  • solar-water-heating
  • cold
  • sun-tempering

Topics

Categories