Building better buildings

Journal Article · · Northwest Energy News; (USA)

OSTI ID:6717248

Erickson, J; Klumpp, L ^[1]

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1. Washington State Energy Office, Olympia (USA)

Bonneville Power Administration - working through the Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington state energy offices - began the Residential Standards Demonstration Program in 1984 to demonstrate practical applications of the model conservation standards adopted the year before by the Northwest Power Planning Council. The Council's standards set energy-efficiency levels for new electrically heated housing. The program was designed first to market energy-efficiency features to both builders and home buyers in the course of constructing 423 model-standards-level homes. Through the program, builders learned cutting-edge energy-efficient construction techniques. The program also provided an actual test of how well the standards could work. The program resulted in five general conclusions: (1) Builders can effectively build energy efficiency into new homes. (2) Home buyers will purchase homes with energy-efficiency measures. (3) Homeowners in the model standards home, on average, used about half the energy for space heating used in the comparable 1980-level homes. (4) Actual costs for building homes to the model conservation standards were very nearly what was originally predicted. (5) As with costs, the average actual energy consumption for these homes came very close to the predicted consumption.

• OSTI ID: 6717248
• Journal Information: Northwest Energy News; (USA), Journal Name: Northwest Energy News; (USA) Vol. 8:2; ISSN NENWE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
291000 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Conservation
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320105* -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Building Services-- (1987-)
BUILDINGS
CONSTRUCTION
COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS
DEMONSTRATION PROGRAMS
EFFICIENCY
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
FEDERAL REGION X
NORTH AMERICA
RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
USA