Energy measurements of single-family houses with attics containing radiant barriers
Radiant barriers were tested in attics of three unoccupied research houses which are located near Knoxville, Tennessee. The prime purpose of the testing was to determine the interaction, if any, between two types of radiant barriers, horizontal (barrier laid on top of attic insulation) and truss (barrier attached to underside of roof trusses), and three levels of fiberglass-batt attic insulation, R-11, R-19, and R-30. Testing of radiant barriers with R-19 fiberglass-batt attic insulation was done at the houses in the summer of 1985 and in the winter of 1985-86. The R-11 and R-30 testing was done in the summer of 1986. These results showed that horizontal barriers were more effective than truss barriers in reducing house cooling and heating loads. The summer of 1986 testing showed that increasing the attic insulation from R-11 to R-30 reduced the house cooling load (Btu) by approximately 16%. Adding a horizontal barrier to R-11 also reduced the cooling load compared to R-11 with no barrier by about 16%, while a truss barrier reduced it by 11%. A horizontal barrier with R-30 only reduced the cooling load by 2% compared to R-30 with no barrier, while an increase in the cooling load of 0.7% was measured with a truss barrier and R-30. Radiant barriers were not effective in reducing house cooling loads when R-30 attic insulation was present. The results from the summer of 1985 were integrated into the latest work through the use of a modeling effort using the building load simulation program, DOE-2.1B. This showed that R-19 insulation in conjunction with a horizontal barrier was (for Knoxville) the most effective barrier/insulation combination and could reduce the house cooling load by 25.1% compared to R-11 with no barrier.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-84OR21400
- OSTI ID:
- 6637515
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-870620-4; ON: DE87009027
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Annual meeting of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Nashville, TN, USA, 28 Jun 1987; Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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