Field Measurements of Heating Efficiency of Electric Forced-Air Furnaces in Six Manufactured Homes.

Technical Report · Tue Jul 26 00:00:00 EDT 1994

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10110189· OSTI ID:10110189

Davis, Bob; Palmiter, Larry S; Siegel, Jeff

This report presents the results of field measurements of heating efficiency for six manufactured homes in the Pacific Northwest heated with electric forced-air systems. This is the first in a series of regional and national efforts to measure in detail the heating efficiency of manufactured homes. Only six homes were included in this study because of budgetary constraints; therefore this is not a representative sample. These investigations do provide some useful information on the heating efficiency of these homes. Useful comparisons can be drawn between these study homes and site-built heating efficiencies measured with a similar protocol. The protocol used to test these homes is very similar to another Ecotope protocol used in the study conducted in 1992 and 1993 for the Bonneville Power Administration to test the heating efficiency of 24 homes. This protocol combined real-time power measurements of furnace energy usage with energy usage during co-heat periods. Accessory data such as house and duct tightness measurements and tracer gas measurements were used to describe these homes and their heating system efficiency. Ensuring that manufactured housing is constructed in an energy and resource efficient manner is of increasing concern to manufactured home builders and consumers. No comparable work has been done to measure the heating system efficiency of MCS manufactured homes, although some co-heat tests have been performed on manufactured homes heated with natural gas to validate HUD thermal standards. It is expected that later in 1994 more research of this kind will be conducted, and perhaps a less costly and less time-consuming method for testing efficiencies will be develops.

• Research Organization: Ecotope, Inc., Seattle, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AM79-91BP13330
• OSTI ID: 10110189
• Report Number(s): DOE/BP-2458; ON: DE95004887
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320100
AIRTIGHTNESS
BLOWERS
BONNEVILLE POWER ADMINISTRATION
BUILDINGS
DUCTS
ELECTRIC FURNACES
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
ENERGY LOSSES
ENERGY MODELS
Electric heating - Energy consumption - Measurement
FUNCTIONAL MODELS
HEATING SYSTEMS
HOUSES
HVAC SYSTEMS
PERFORMANCE TESTING
PREFABRICATED BUILDINGS
R FACTORS
THERMAL CONDUCTION