Cold climate foundation insulation retrofit performance

Conference · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1990 · ASHRAE Transactions (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers); (United States)

OSTI ID:5167220

Robinson, D A ^[1]; Goldberg, L F; Shen, L S ^[2]; Nelson, G D ^[3]; Hewett, M J ^[4]; Noble, M T ^[5]

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1. Robinson Technical Services, St. Paul, MN (US)
2. Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (US)
3. Energy Conservatory, Minneapolis, MN (US)
4. Center for Energy and the Urban Environment, Minneapolis, MN (US)
5. Natural Resources Corp., Minneapolis, MN (US)

The effectiveness of foundation insulation retrofits in 15 Minnesota houses was evaluated using a before-after experimental method. Nine houses received interior retrofits; six, exterior retrofits. Foundation air leaks were sealed before the preretrofit heating season to control for inadvertent sealing during retrofit. Basement heating supply and return registers were closed in most houses for the 21-month monitoring period, and for all houses the basement was an uncontrolled zone without a thermostat. Homeowners recorded gas and electricity meter readings and furnace and water heater on-times weekly. A load vs. outdoor temperature was used to evaluate changes in energy use. The average whole-house energy savings for the interior and exterior cases were 92 and 24 therm per year, or 7.9% (range - 0.6% to 17.8%) and 3.0% (range -2.9% to 8.3%), respectively. Minimum payback periods for the interior and exterior cases were 12 and 37 years, respectively. For all houses the basement temperature increased between the pre- and post-retrofit periods, and all homeowners reported increased comfort in their basements. Average measured savings were about one-third of those predicted. The results show that the application of insulation in an uncontrolled zone produces highly variable results and has the principal effect of increasing the temperature and comfort of the basement rather than producing cost-effective whole-house energy savings.

• OSTI ID: 5167220
• Report Number(s): CONF-9006117--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: ASHRAE Transactions (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers); (United States) Journal Volume: 96:2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320107* -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Building Systems-- (1987-)
BASEMENTS
BUILDINGS
ENERGY ANALYSIS
ENERGY CONSUMPTION
HOUSES
MATHEMATICS
MONITORING
PERFORMANCE TESTING
REGRESSION ANALYSIS
RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
RETROFITTING
STATISTICS
TEMPERATURE MONITORING
TESTING
THERMAL INSULATION