Codes vs marketing: How far have they advanced home construction practices in the Pacific Northwest

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1991

OSTI ID:5678604

Brown, M A; Kolb, J O ^[1]; Brandis, P ^[2]

---

1. Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
2. USDOE Bonneville Power Administration, Portland, OR (USA)

Improving the efficiency of new home construction offers many advantages to utilities. It decreases the size of the energy load that new construction places on the power system, reduces the need to weatherize buildings at a later date, and avoids lost opportunities'' which occur because efficiency measures may be economical when a dwelling is being constructed but prohibitively expensive or structurally impossible to add at a later date. This paper assesses the relative effectiveness of codes vs marketing approaches to promoting energy-efficient new homes. Insights are drawn primarily from comparing and contrasting the experiences of a code program (the Early Adopter Program) and a marketing program (Super Good Cents) operated by Bonneville Power Administration in the Pacific Northwest to non-program houses. Both programs promote the adoption of Model Conservation Standards (MCS) for new home construction. The results presented in this paper indicate that the energy efficiency of residential construction practices in the Pacific Northwest improved significantly as the result of Bonneville's two MCS programs. By 1988, the code and marketing programs had attracted approximately the same level of participation in terms of numbers of homes being built to Model Conservation Standards, and the energy efficiency of the home construction under the two programs was comparable. The building thermal envelopes of both SGC and EA homes built in 1987 are more energy efficient than those of other homes built during the same year. 5 refs., 2 figs., 1 tab.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 5678604
• Report Number(s): CONF-910704-1; ON: DE91012229
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320105* -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Building Services-- (1987-)
AIR INFILTRATION
BONNEVILLE POWER ADMINISTRATION
BUILDING CODES
BUILDING MATERIALS
BUILDINGS
CONSTRUCTION
EFFICIENCY
ENERGY CONSERVATION
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
FEDERAL REGION VIII
FEDERAL REGION X
FINANCIAL INCENTIVES
HOUSES
IDAHO
MARKETING
MATERIALS
MONTANA
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NORTH AMERICA
OREGON
PUBLIC UTILITIES
RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
US DOE
US ORGANIZATIONS
USA
WASHINGTON