May 20, 2015

Energy & Advocacy News

>>Energy Department Invests $4 Million to Strengthen Building America Industry Partnerships
Source: energy.gov
The Energy Department on May 5 announced $4 million to develop and demonstrate new energy efficiency solutions for the nation's homes. The Energy Department's Building America program develops cutting-edge innovations and resources with industry partners to spur the residential buildings market to adopt energy efficiency measures that will provide 50% savings in new homes by 2025 and 40% savings in existing homes by 2030.

For example, the University of Central Florida of Orlando, Florida, will study advanced whole-house residential construction practices for production builders that can achieve 50% whole-house energy savings compared with houses built to code in hot and humid climates. And Integrated Building and Construction Solutions will investigate a proposed Thermal Comfort Rating Method, which will be applied to an innovative plug-and-play heating, ventilation, and air conditioning distribution system design.

For these Building America projects, teams will focus on developing and implementing solutions to three inter‐related core technical challenges:

•high-performance building envelope assemblies and systems

•optimal comfort systems for heating, cooling, air distribution, and humidity control

•and high-performance ventilation systems and other strategies for indoor air quality.

See the Energy Department news release.

>>U.S. DOE Building America Update
Source: energy.gov
The U.S. Department of Energy's Building America Update newsletter is now available.
Read this issue to learn about:

>Building America teams Advanced Residential Integrated Energy Solutions (ARIES) and the NorthernSTAR Building America Partnership, pioneers in innovative building technologies

>Results from the 2015 Race to Zero Student Design Competition

>New funding from DOE for Building America team partnerships

>May 20 Building America webinar: Resolving Codes and Standards Issues to Energy Innovations

>New Building America Code Compliance Brief for continuous rigid Insulation for cladding/furring attachment

>Call for abstracts for Buildings XIII Conference—Thermal Performance of the Exterior Envelopes, due May 29, 2015

>2015 Housing Innovation Award application period open through May 31, 2015

>Upcoming new features for Building America Solution Center: improved navigation, checklists, Building Science Sales Tool

>Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Buildings Crowdsourcing Community website

>Call for entries for the 2015 GreenBuilder magazine Home of the Year Awards

>Residential success stories highlighting ARIES and NorthernSTAR team projects

>Building America in the news

>The latest publications from Building America: measure guidelines, case studies for new and existing homes and technologies, and more!

Read the full issue for the latest news and information from Building America.