Building Science: Build Very High Levels Of Energy Performance Into New Homes
Building Science article describes, using this Westford House as an example, how to build very high levels of energy performance into new homes. Use lots of insulation, airtight construction, controlled ventilation, and not a lot of glass. Use real good glass whenever you use glass, use real good appliances, use real good lighting, and after you have done all of this use real good equipment. The real good equipment is now pretty small because you have done the other stuff. And then stop.
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Building Science: Community Scale Evaluation Of Affordable Energy Efficient House
Building Science project goal was to create a home with a high R-value enclosure, a right-sized mechanical system, energy efficient lighting, appliances, windows and doors, and also have the possibility of adding site-generated power at some point in the future. This summary includes whole-house performance and systems engineering, construction support, source energy savings and quality control requirements and integration. (PDF)
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EQuilibrium: CMHC EQuilibrium Housing Initiative
CMHC EQuilibrium housing is a design and development approach that addresses integrate the following five key principles for sustainable design: Health, Energy, Resources, Environment, and Affordability. (PDF)
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Factor 9 Home: A Prairie Demonstration Home By Rob Dumont
Factor 9 Home is new demonstration home in Regina that will use 90% less energy than a conventional 1970 home of same size, use about 50% less water than a conventional home of same size and features other environmental approaches. (PDF)
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Factor 9 Home: Canadian Prairie Sustainable Home
Factor 9 Home is described by CMHC as an energy and water efficient Regina solar home that aims to produce 90 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions than a typical Regina home. Through an integrated design process, high goals of sustainable practices were established. Measures include an active solar heating system, ENERGY STAR rated equipment, low flow fixtures and rainwater capture, indigenous landscaping plants, airtight and well-insulated exterior, triple glazed, low E windows with fibreglass frames among others. (PDF)
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GBA: Meet The Tightest House In The World
Green Building Advisor describes an Alaskan home, a 600-sq. ft. building with three windows and 28-in. thick walls, that set a world mark with a blower-door test result far below the Passivhaus standard.
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J of C: Vancouver Passive House Project Shows Energy-Efficient Future
Journal Of Commerce says a new low-carbon, ultra-energy efficient building called The Heights is under construction in Vancouver. The six-storey, 85-unit market-rental apartment aims to be Canada's largest building certified to the internationally recognized passive house standard.
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Solar Decathlon: Online Videos Of 2015 Demonstration Houses
US Department of Energy online 2015 Solar Decathlon videos highlight the various demonstration homes that were part of this years competition. They feature projects that include everything from solar electric power, solar hot water, radiant heating, reclaimed wood and steel materials, living roofs and gardens, and cool designs for any environment.
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US DOE: The Performance House, A Cold Climate Challenge Home
US Department of Energy Report The Performance House, A Cold Climate Challenge Home provides details of a high performance test home built on the premise that homes should be safe, healthy, comfortable, durable, efficient, and adapt with the homeowners. The focus was on simplicity in construction, maintenance, and operation, and the technologies and strategies used were not cutting-edge, but simply best practices practiced. (PDF)
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West House: Vancouver Sustainable Laneway Home
West House is a made-in-Vancouver demonstration of a sustainable laneway home. It showcases leading-edge small footprint residential design, energy efficient, integrated systems and interactive technologies that encourage a sustainable lifestyle.
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BPA: Annual National Home Performance Conference & Trade Show
Building Performance Association presents it's annual National Home Performance Conference & Trade Show creating a forum where forward-thinking people can meet to get a wealth of unbiased building science know-how and all the latest product information. Connect with influencers in the home performance and weatherization industry. Share in their knowledge. Learn new ideas. Exchange best practices. Discover new products, technologies and solutions. Forge new alliances. It will be held in New Orleans, LA, April 27-30, 2020.
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Builder Magazine: Centex Stays Course With Energy Advantage Homes
Builder Magazine article describes how Centex, one of the largest home builders in the US, is staying the course despite the downturn, with Energy Advantage program. Centex Energy Advantage, is a standard package of low-E windows, insulation, high-efficiency HVAC systems, energy-saving appliances, plumbing and lighting, and an energy monitor.
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EEBA: High Performance Home Summit
Energy and Environmental Building Association new High Performance Home Summit will feature presentations from leading builders, building science experts, architects, raters and designers that represent the cutting edge of residential construction. It willl have leading building scientists delivering the most relevant and next-level content available, but the new Summit will also incorporate and share focus with real world success stories from those who are reaching for and getting to that next level. EEBA is unlike any other event - you will hear timely, accurate and relevant information that can transform your practice and provide you with the knowledge to succeed in building homes that deliver superior resource efficiency and performance.
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Fine Homebuilding: KB Home Mileage Sticker For Household Energy Use
Fine Homebuilding says KB Homes new Home Energy Performance Guide, or EPG, is intended to provide prospective homebuyers with an estimate of average monthly energy costs. The estimated costs are calculated using the home energy rating protocol known as the HERS Index rating, which is based on an analysis of the building's design and performance, and on local utility rates.
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PNNL: Transitioning To High-Performance Homes: Successes & Lessons Learned From Builders
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory report Transitioning to High-Performance Homes: Successes and Lessons Learned from Seven Builders says as these builders have demonstrated, affordable, high-performance homes are possible, but require attention to detail and flexibility in design to accommodate specific regional geographic or market-driven constraints that can increase cost. (PDF)
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US DOE: A New Take on New Construction
US Department of Energy says construction choices and activities significantly impact the near- and long-term operational energy performance of buildings. The incorporation of recent advancements in manufacturing, fabrication, materials, and logistics hold the potential to drastically improve the efficiency and comfort of our building stock.
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US DOE: Annual Winners of US Housing Innovation Awards
US Department of Energy's annual Housing Innovation Awards winners are recognized as the best in innovation on the path to zero energy ready homes. Awards are given in the categories of Custom for Buyer, Custom Spec, Production, Multi-Family, and Affordable.
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US DOE: Energy Efficiency Trends In US Residential & Commercial Buildings
US Department of Energy report outlines key drivers in building construction and use and resulting impacts on energy consumption. It then discusses impacts of that energy - particularly fossil-fuel-generated electricity - on carbon released to the atmosphere. Subsequent sections describe building and energy efficiency trends specific to the residential and commercial building sectors. The report ends with a section on policy efforts, such as taxes and regulation, intended to influence building energy use. (PDF)
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EEBA: Energy & Environmental Building Alliance
EEBA is the US association for those involved in energy efficient new home construction, and gives info on industry events and resources, as well as providing education on building science, energy efficiency, and environmentally responsible buildings.
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IRC: Canadian Research Into Zero-Peak Houses
Canadian Institute for Research in Construction is investigating how Canadian homes can become zero-peak power consumers, and to demonstrate a practical zero-peak house. Zero-peak means drawing no power from the grid at times of peak system-wide demand.It can be achieved through more efficient house design, shifting demand to off-peak times with advanced controls, appliances, and changes in occupant behaviour, and local power generation and storage. (PDF)
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BC Hydro: Free E-mail Newsletter On Energy Efficiency For Homeowners
BC Hydro free monthly e-mail newsletter for residential customers focuses on energy-saving tips and stories. Content includes conservation issues and questions, Green Guides, customer success stories, popular posts from Unplug this Blog!, recent updates from bchydro.com and information about the latest rebates and savings.
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NRCan: Overview On R-2000 Homes
Natural Resources Canada has a summary of information and links to resources on Canadian R2000 New Home Program. Although it has never made it into the mainstream there are still a good number of builders and customers who know it serves some very specific needs.
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ASHRAE: Updated Residential, Construction Standard 90.2
ASHRAE has released an updated edition of ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.2-2018 Energy-Efficient Design of Low Rise Residential Buildings. The standard establishes minimum whole-building energy performance requirements (design, construction, and verification) for energy-efficient residential buildings
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BC Gov: BC Building Code Requirements For Energy Efficiency
BC Building and Safety Standards Branch provide resources which are designed to help code users understand and comply with BC Building Code new requirements for the minimum energy efficiency of buildings and their equipment and minimum ventilation requirements for houses and some residential apartments.
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CMHC: The Five Essentials of Healthy Housing
CMHC provides an overview on the five essentials of healthy housing, including occupant health, energy efficiency, resource efficiency, environmental responsibility and affordability.
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FortisBC: New Home Program Rebates & Incentives
FortisBC has adopted the BC Energy Step Code as the energy performance standard for their New Home Program. Build a home more energy efficient than the minimum BC Building Code requirements and you can qualify for a home performance rebate ranging from $1,000 to $8,000. Or you can pick and choose from a variety of rebates such as high-efficiency natural gas water heaters and fireplaces. Homes located in our electricity service area are also eligible for ENERGY STAR® appliance and heat pump water heater rebates.
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GBA: Disappointing Energy Savings For Energy Star Homes
Green Building Advisor says Energy Star homes are supposed to have energy savings of 15% to 30%. Trouble is, they don't seem to come close. A Houston study shows that homes without an Energy Star label perform almost as well as Energy Star homes.
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HIRL: Moisture Performance Of Walls In Energy Efficent Homes
US NAHB Home Innovation Research Labs report Moisture Performance of Walls in Energy Efficient Homes focuses on characterization of energy-efficient walls in a sample of new, occupied homes recently constructed around the US in moist or marine climate zones. (PDF)
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NRCan: Canadian EnerGuide Rating System For New Houses
Natural Resources Canada My EnerGuide page is a source for all the latest information about the updated EnerGuide Rating System. Natural Resources Canada is in the process of updating numerous aspects of the EnerGuide Rating System for homes, including the rating scale and the reports homeowners receive, in order to provide homeowners with better information about the energy performance of their homes. More than 300 key industry stakeholders were consulted as part of the process of planning these updates, including a nationwide public review period.
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NRCan: R-2000 Building Standards
NRCan gives you details of the IAQ, HVAC, envelope, and other performance requirements, to build a house to minimum energy and environmental standards so it can be certified R2000.
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Wilden Living Lab: Okanagan Sustainable Homebuilding Project
Wilden Living Lab is a research and learning project that Wilden partners with UBC, Okanagan College, AuthenTech Homes and Fortis BC. Two homes are being built to different standards and with different components. After families have moved in, the energy efficiency of the various innovations will be monitored over three years.
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BPA: Transforming High-Performing Homes by Showcasing Efficient Energy
Building Performance Association and Elevate Energy report Making the Value Visible: A Blueprint for Transforming the High-Performing Homes Market by Showcasing Clean and Efficient Energy Improvements presents strategies for valuing clean and efficient energy upgrades in the real estate market.
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BPP: Building New High Performance Homes
Building Performance Podcast features Matt Risinger on Building New High Performance Homes talking about insulation/outsulation, building science facts/fiction, and the classic dilemma of building anything well: it's complicated.
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Builder Magazine: Builder's Balanced Approach To Energy Upgrades
Builder Magazine says homebuyers shopping in Denver's huge Stapleton development know they're going to get an energy-efficient home because that's all the master developer will allow. But Wonderland Homes is betting that its continued success in Stapleton depends on not taking energy efficiency too far.
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Building Science: Designs That Work By Climate Region
Building Science offers house construction energy efficient design recommendations by climate region, hygro-thermal regions map, climate-specific building science and energy analysis for each house design, and house plan details based on different climate regions. Select the climate zone from the right panel.
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Building Science: Just Right & Airtight
Building Science says folks are building houses and retrofitting existing houses with increased airtightness, and this is great. They use a blower door to help measure leakage, and this is also great. But then they think that a blower door actually is a precise measuring tool for how air will leak across the building during service. Wrong. Even more serious an issue is to then take the leap that using a wrong assumption about the results of an approximate measurement can be used to decide that mechanical ventilation is not needed. Bad, very bad, and potentially deadly.
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Building Science: Strategies For Resource-Efficient Residential Buildings
Building Science Consortium, one of five Building America teams, describes its integrated strategy to achieve the Building America goals, incorporating advanced framing, improved insulation, simplified HVAC systems, high performance windows, and details that ensure durability of the homes. The consortiums projects to date, totaling 884 homes, have produced in significant and measurable environmental gains. (PDF)
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CMHC: Super-Insulated Housing in Yukon
CMHC report Documentation of Super-Insulated Housing in Yukon evaluated performance and return on investment of 10 homes, and recorded lessons learned by their builders. (PDF)
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CMLS: Home Energy Information Guide for US Realtors
US Council of Multiple Listing Services online Home Energy Information Guide assists real estate professionals in understanding how to provide home energy information and can facilitate multiple listing services delivering of verified data. (PDF)
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Energy Vanguard: Give Up Using High-Performance Home Term
Energy Vanguard says a marketing firm that focuses on sustainability and energy efficiency sectors says we must stop using the term High Performance Nome unless we’re going to really make the effort (i.e., support with marketing dollars) to make it meaningful to consumers.
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Fixr: 2019 Energy-Efficient Home Design Trends
Fixr online 2019 Energy-Efficient Home Design Trends Report summarizes interviews with 25 experts in the home design industry. They describe upcoming trends in energy-efficient home features, design, and building trends. (PDF)
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GBA: Net-Zero-Energy Versus Passivhaus
Green Building Advisor discusses net-zero energy versus Passivhaus approaches to building a superinsulated house, and describes how each has its strengths.
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GBA: The Pretty Good House
Green Building Advisor says finding the right balance between construction cost and energy performance is crucial. Many programs with different metrics can help you to determine how green your home is, but what elements of green building are important when you are designing and building a home?
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II: 4 Tips to Help Builders Ace Their Blower Door Test
Insulation Institute describes four best practices that can help builders meet new air tightness levels, as put forward by a company that specializes in residential and commercial energy auditing and code compliance.
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II: Do Homebuyers Want Energy Upgrade Packages?
Insulation Institute says builders, ever eager to meet the desires of their buyers, typically offer a dizzying array of choices in products, finishes and designs to suit a wide variety of styles. Yet seemingly few builders offer consumers a choice in homes at varying energy efficiency targets.
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IMT: Bringing Transparency To Real Estate Transactions
Institute for Market Transformation says in the District of Columbia, they are taking steps to increase the transparency of real estate transactions and ensure that the green attributes of homes are displayed in MLS listings.
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PEIA: High Performance Houses & Energy In BC
Pacific Energy Innovation Association online slide show presentation High Performance Houses and Energy: Where we are at & where we are going, describes the current state of leading edge building science and technology for new homes in BC. (PDF)
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RDH: Energy Efficient Northern Housing Guide, Cost Optimized
RDH Building Engineering online Energy Efficient Northern Housing Guide covers the design and construction of an archetype energy and cost optimized single family dwelling for Whitehorse, YT. The guide is intended to be used by the building industry to achieve higher energy efficiency than the minimum code requirements while maximizing cost savings from lower energy use. (PDF)
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RDH: Energy Efficient Northern Housing Guide, Energy Optimized
RDH Building Engineering online Energy Efficient Northern Housing Guide covers the design and construction of an archetype energy and cost optimized single family dwelling for Whitehorse, YT. The guide is intended to be used by the building industry to achieve higher energy efficiency than the minimum code requirements while maximizing cost savings from lower energy use. (PDF)
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US DOE: Advanced Construction Documentation For High Performance Homes
US Department of Energy online Strategy Guideline: Advanced Construction Documentation Recommendations for High Performance Homes identifies differences between the requirements for construction documents for high performance housing and the documents that are typically produced for conventional housing. There are four changes recommended to achieve improvements in energy efficiency, durability, and health in Building America program houses: create coordination drawings, improve specifications, improve detail drawings, and review drawings and prepare a Quality Control Plan. (PDF)
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US DOE: Building America Climate-Specific Guidance
Building America online Best Practices guides and case studies demonstrate real world solutions for improving the energy performance and quality of new and existing homes in five major climate regions.
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US DOE: Business Metrics For High-Performance Homes
US Department of Energy report Business Metrics for High-Performance Homes: A Colorado Springs Case Study explores the relationship between energy-efficiency ratings and the market performance of several builders in Colorado Springs. It shows a builder's investment in voluntary energy-efficiency programs correlated with that builder's ability to survive the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009. (PDF)
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US DOE: Guide To Building Energy Efficient Homes In Marine Climate
US Department of Energy Building America Best Practices guide, 40% Whole-House Energy Savings in the Marine Climate provides helpful information on: the business case for energy efficiency; whole-house approach to building science; energy-efficiency construction recommendations; site documentation for supervisors and how-to field guides on specific energy-efficiency measures; and case studies. (PDF)
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US DOE: Improving New Home Efficiency Comfort & Durability In Cold & Very Cold Climates
US Department of Energy online Builders and Buyers Handbook for Improving New Home Efficiency, Comfort,and Durability in the Cold and Very Cold Climates is a resource to help builders large and small build high-quality, energy-efficient homes that achieve 30% energy savings in space conditioning and water heating in the cold and very cold climates. (PDF)
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US DOE: Strategy Guideline For Partnering For High Performance Homes
US Department of Energy online Strategy Guideline: Partnering for High Performance Homes is intended for use by all parties associated with the design and construction of high performance homes. It serves as a starting point and features initial tools and resources for teams to start collaborating to continually improve the energy efficiency and durability of new houses. (PDF)
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Waterloo Univ: Evaluation Of High Performance Residential Housing Technology
University of Waterloo student Aaron Grin masters thesis reviews a variety of North American green rating systems and contrasts their energy performance requirements with those of the Ontario Building Code. The literature review shows that homes that use 75% less heating energy than a standard house could be built in the 1980s for a mere 5% construction cost premium, and that significantly more can be done to economically reduce house energy consumption. (PDF)
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BC Bid: Access BC Public Sector Bid Opportunities
BC Bid offers a faster, more convenient way to access BC public sector bid opportunities. You can take advantage of their value-added bid-matching and e-bidding services. For an annual fee of $100, you can create your own custom commodity profile and receive matching notices automatically by e-mail. Interested in electronic bidding? This service is also available to authenticated bidders for $150 per year.
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FortisBC: New Home Program Rebates & Incentives
FortisBC has adopted the BC Energy Step Code as the energy performance standard for their New Home Program. Build a home more energy efficient than the minimum BC Building Code requirements and you can qualify for a home performance rebate ranging from $1,000 to $8,000. Or you can pick and choose from a variety of rebates such as high-efficiency natural gas water heaters and fireplaces. Homes located in our electricity service area are also eligible for ENERGY STAR® appliance and heat pump water heater rebates.
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Freddie Mac: Value Added to Properties & Loan Performance
Freddie Mac report Value Added to Properties & Loan Performance says energy-efficient homes sell for higher prices than other homes, and mortgages secured by energy-efficient properties perform better than other mortgages. (PDF)
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GBA: Home Buyers Will Pay Extra For Energy Efficiency
Green Building Advisor says according to a national survey of 116 single-family home builders, developers, and remodelers performed by McGraw Hill in 2013, 73% of those surveyed said that home buyers will pay more for a green home. This is up from 61% in 2011.
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NZEH: Cost Optimization Study Of Improving Energy Efficiency Of Homes In Canada
Net Zero Energy Home report Path to Net-Zero Energy Homes: Cost Optimization Study of Progressively Improving Energy Efficiency of Homes in Canada documents the uniform framework for developing specifications in different regions, with specific emphasis on methods used for the energy analysis, housing archetypes, HVAC systems and incremental cost impacts. Energy efficiency targets included 25%, 50%, 75% and net-zero (100%) better than current code requirements. (PDF)
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