CMFERT (Collaborative Manufactured-Building Facility for Energy Research and Training): Training and testing of mobile home retrofits

Journal Article · · Home Energy; (USA)

OSTI ID:6649714

Judkoff, R ^[1]; DeSoto, R; Hancock, E

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1. Solar Energy Research Institute, Golden, CO (USA)

One quarter of all homes eligible for federal Low-Income Weatherization Assistance are mobile homes-the building type most notorious as energy sieves. Eligible or not, mobile homes tend to be inhabited by people who can least afford the mobile homes disproportionately high fuel bills. To top it off, a lack of hard data about the effectiveness of various mobile home retrofits, combined with a lack of knowledge about cost-effective installations techniques, has severely limited the effectiveness of mobile home weatherization. To provide this crucial information, the Collaborative Manufactured-Building Facility for Energy and Research Training (CMFERT) was established in 1988 with the following goals: to test the thermal effectiveness of conventional and innovative mobile home weatherization measures, and on train weatherization field staff in improved weatherization techniques. The Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) developed the thermal monitoring method and conducted the tests. The article concludes with the results of the tests. The most cost-effective measures appear to be: blower-door-directed air sealing and duct repair, furnace tune-up, belly blow, interior storm panels, and roof blow. Skirting, insulated skirting and roof caps were found to be less cost effective.

• OSTI ID: 6649714
• Journal Information: Home Energy; (USA), Journal Name: Home Energy; (USA) Vol. 7:1; ISSN 0896-9442; ISSN HOENE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320107* -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Building Systems-- (1987-)
BUILDINGS
COST
EFFICIENCY
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
MOBILE HOMES
RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
RETROFITTING
THERMAL EFFICIENCY
WEATHERIZATION