Advances in Industrial Energy-Efficiency Technologies
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Buildings and Energy Systems Division
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy.
NREL/TP-470-5776J
June 1994
NREL is the nation's premier renewable energy and energy efficiency laboratory. Located in Golden, Colorado, NREL is part of the Department of Energy's family of national laboratories. More than 735 staff members conduct or support research at NREL; this staff is augmented by 150 visiting scientists from industry and academia. Founded in 1977 at the Solar Energy Research Institute, NREL develops renewable energy technologies to:
Photo: Construction workers install a panelized foundation for the IBACOS test home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. [see box on back page of original document].
These prefabricated concrete panels reduce the time and labor required to produce a finished foundation. The panels are preinsulated to increase energy efficiency in the home, and integral wood nailers reduce the time required for interior finishing.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is working with members of the American housing industry to change the design and construction process in the United States. NREL, through the Department of Energy's Building America Program, is redefining the way homes are conceived, designed, and constructed. Building America is assessing new construction techniques that emphasize conservation and cost savings. Compared with traditionally constructed homes, Building America homes will be more energy efficient and environmentally responsible; they will also be higher in quality and more affordable.
Since the 1940s, the housing industry has consisted of autonomous entities - designers, contractors, builders, component manufacturers, and community developers - all working independently of each other. Furnace designers, for example, have had little interaction with insulation manufacturers, and home designers often work without consulting community planners. Energy and materials are not used efficiently in the average home. In fact, most homes contain subsystems and components that work against each other.
The key to building America is industry integration. Building America encourages the housing industry's diverse players to work together in teams. The construction-related decisions, from sub-component design to community planning, which have traditionally been made unilaterally, will now be made within the context of the entire construction process - the emphasis is on an integrated systems approach. Housing will no longer be the sum of individual parts; Building America will bring a new level of interaction and cooperation to the industry. As a result, American home buyers will benefit from reduced costs, increased efficiency, and reduced environmental impacts.
Building America has established a number of performance goals for the homes and communities built under its auspices. Energy use in a Building America home should be 20% to 75% less - depending on the climate - than that in a comparable conventionally built home. The percentage of recycled materials used in construction will increase by a minimum of 50%, and construction waste will be reduced by 50%. Because one of the primary objectives driving Building America is to make the U.S. housing industry more competitive, these construction and performance goals should be met with little or no increase in the cost of a home.
Photo: Top: Plug-in plastic plumbing manifolds are used in the IBACOS test home. Compared with traditional solder-based plumbing, these manifolds are quickly installed and give builders and homeowners much greater flexibility in laying out kitchens and bathrooms. Remodeling and upgrades are easily accomplished using these modular components. Inset: The IBACOS test home under construction in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Prefabricated roofing panels are stacked in the foreground. [provided in source document]
The Integrated Building and Construction Solutions consortium - or IBACOS for short - is the first consortium to join Building America. The IBACOS team consists of:
| Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates | architecture and engineering, energy system |
| GE Plastics | engineering thermoplastics |
| Masco Corporation | kitchen, bath, and furniture systems |
| USG Corporation | gypsum materials and building products |
Other contributors to the IBACOS team include:
When the analysis of the test home is completed, IBACOS will design and build a neighborhood-scale community incorporating the innovations. The long-term goal is to create a "lead-builder" network that will incorporate design and construction advances in communities across the country.
The heart of Building America will be numerous housing industry teams, or consortia, the first of which has already been formed [see box above - provided in source document]. By 1995, this consortium will be joined by three to five "sister" consortia, and each will select the areas of home design, construction, and subsystem design it believes could benefit from systems-oriented research. The consortia's work will be demonstrated in test homes, and the innovations will be combined into neighborhood-scale projects beginning in 1997. The members of each team will conduct the research, engineering, and system analyses required to implement these innovations before building the test homes.
The consortia will work with researchers from NREL and the other DOE national laboratories to overcome technical and institutional barriers that inhibit the integrated approach. This research and development work - anticipated to focus on key technical, infrastructure, system engineering, and operational needs - will occur simultaneously with the consortia's design work.
Contact:
Ren Anderson, Manager
Building Energy Technology Program
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
1617 Cole Boulevard
Golden, Colorado 80401-3393
(303) 275-0000 ext. 1972
Last Updated: February 12, 1996