Effect of occupant behavior on peak cooling and dehumidification loads in typical and high-efficiency homes

Munk, Jeffrey D.; Winkler, Jon

doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.10.044

Title: Effect of occupant behavior on peak cooling and dehumidification loads in typical and high-efficiency homes

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Abstract

Residential building codes and voluntary labeling programs are continually increasing the energy efficiency requirements of residential buildings. Improving a building's thermal enclosure, installing the ductwork in conditioned space, and improving the building's airtightness results in significant reductions in externally-driven sensible and latent cooling loads. As a building's efficiency is improved, occupant-related internal gains become a larger portion of the building sensible and latent loads. Additionally, internal gains are highly uncertain compared to other load components. In this study, we use a stochastic approach to simulate occupant-related internal gains and compare the internal gains to other sensible and latent heat sources in four house efficiency levels in 10 U.S. climates using whole-building energy simulation software. We compare the expected range in occupant-related internal gains to other building characteristics such as cooling set point, air infiltration rate, and mechanical ventilation rate. We show that in high-efficiency homes, sensible internal gains vary from less than 10% to greater than 40% of the building sensible load under peak total cooling conditions depending on climate and internal gain profile. Likewise, latent internal gains vary from less than 10% to more than 60% of the building latent load under peak total cooling and peak dehumidification conditionsmore »« less

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^[1];

^[2]

Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Publication Date:: Fri Nov 16 00:00:00 EST 2018

Research Org.:: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Energy Efficiency Office. Building Technologies Office

OSTI Identifier:: 1488725

Alternate Identifier(s):: OSTI ID: 1485556; OSTI ID: 1636516

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5500-71335
Journal ID: ISSN 0378-7788

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725; AC36-08GO28308

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Energy and Buildings

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 184; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0378-7788

Publisher:: Elsevier

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION; 42 ENGINEERING; Residential; Cooling loads; Indoor humidity; Low-load; Moisture buffering; Effective moisture penetration depth; Humidity; Building energy modeling; Moisture; residential; cooling loads; indoor humidity; low-load; moisture buffering; effective moisture penetration depth; humidity; building energy modeling; moisture

Citation Formats


                    Munk, Jeffrey D., and Winkler, Jon. Effect of occupant behavior on peak cooling and dehumidification loads in typical and high-efficiency homes.  United States: N. p., 2018. 
Web.  doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.10.044.

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                    Munk, Jeffrey D., & Winkler, Jon. Effect of occupant behavior on peak cooling and dehumidification loads in typical and high-efficiency homes.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.10.044

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                    Munk, Jeffrey D., and Winkler, Jon. Fri .  
"Effect of occupant behavior on peak cooling and dehumidification loads in typical and high-efficiency homes".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.10.044.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1488725.

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@article{osti_1488725,

  title        = {Effect of occupant behavior on peak cooling and dehumidification loads in typical and high-efficiency homes},

  author       = {Munk, Jeffrey D. and Winkler, Jon},

  abstractNote = {Residential building codes and voluntary labeling programs are continually increasing the energy efficiency requirements of residential buildings. Improving a building's thermal enclosure, installing the ductwork in conditioned space, and improving the building's airtightness results in significant reductions in externally-driven sensible and latent cooling loads. As a building's efficiency is improved, occupant-related internal gains become a larger portion of the building sensible and latent loads. Additionally, internal gains are highly uncertain compared to other load components. In this study, we use a stochastic approach to simulate occupant-related internal gains and compare the internal gains to other sensible and latent heat sources in four house efficiency levels in 10 U.S. climates using whole-building energy simulation software. We compare the expected range in occupant-related internal gains to other building characteristics such as cooling set point, air infiltration rate, and mechanical ventilation rate. We show that in high-efficiency homes, sensible internal gains vary from less than 10% to greater than 40% of the building sensible load under peak total cooling conditions depending on climate and internal gain profile. Likewise, latent internal gains vary from less than 10% to more than 60% of the building latent load under peak total cooling and peak dehumidification conditions depending on climate and internal gain profile.},

  doi          = {10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.10.044},

  journal      = {Energy and Buildings},

  number       = C,

  volume       = 184,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Fri Nov 16 00:00:00 EST 2018},

  month        = {Fri Nov 16 00:00:00 EST 2018}

}

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