Investigating Solutions to Wind Washing Issues in Two-Story Florida Homes, Phase 2

Technical Report · Mon Apr 13 04:00:00 EDT 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1215081· OSTI ID:1215081

Withers, Charles R. ^[1]; Kono, Jamie ^[1]

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1. Florida Solar Energy Center, Cocoa, FL (United States)

With U.S. Department of Energy goals of reducing existing home energy use by 30% and new home energy use by 50%, it is imperative to focus on several energy efficiency measures, including the quality of air and thermal barriers. This report provides results from a second-phase research study of a phenomenon generally referred to as wind washing. Wind washing is the movement of unconditioned air around or through building thermal barriers in such a way as to diminish or nullify the intended thermal performance. In some cases, thermal and air barriers are installed very poorly or not at all, and air can readily move from unconditioned attic spaces into quasi-conditioned interstitial spaces. This study focused on the impact of poorly sealed and insulated floor cavities adjacent to attic spaces in Florida homes. In these cases, unconditioned attic air can be transferred into floor cavities through pathways driven by natural factors such as wind, or by thermal differences between the floor cavity and the attic. Air can also be driven into a floor cavity through mechanical forces imposed by return duct leakage in the floor cavity.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Building Technologies Office (EE-5B)
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1215081
• Report Number(s): NREL/SR--5500-63427; DOE/GO--102015-4595
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
BA-PIRC
air barrier
attic space
building america
cooling impacts
duct tightness
existing homes
floor cavity
heating impacts
multi-story
pressure testing
residential
residential buildings
retrofit
thermal barrier
uncontrolled infiltration
wind washing