PNNL Lab Homes

Sarah Widder

Graham Parker

Michael Baechler

May 10, 2012

Welcome to the Lab Homes…

Goal is to demonstrate an intelligent, responsive, energy efficient, and grid responsive home retrofit over a period of five to seven years which achieves 50% whole house energy savings.

Lab Homes Partners Initial Partners

DOE/BT/Building America-ARRA

DOE/BT/Windows and Envelope R&D

Bonneville Power Administration

DOE/OE

PNNL Facilities

Tri Cities Research District

City of Richland

Northwest Energy Works

WSU-Extension Energy Program

Battelle Memorial Institute (made land

available)

Funding from Building America, DOE

Windows and Envelope R&D and BPA

secured for FY12 to investigate highly

insulating (R5) windows performance.

Lab Homes

Sited Within the Tri-Cities Research District

Lab Homes Characteristics

Specified to represent existing manufactured and stick-built housing

3 BR/2BA 1493 ft2 double-wide factory-built to HUD code

All-electric with 13 SEER/7.7 HSPF heat pump central HVAC + alternate Cadet fan wall heaters throughout

R-22 floors, R-11 walls & R-22 ceiling with composition roof

195.7 ft2 (13% of floor) window area

Wood (Smartpanel) siding

Incandescent lighting

Bath, kitchen, whole house exhaust fans

Carpet + vinyl flooring

Refrigerator/range

All electric

Modifications include extensive metering and EV charging station

Metering and Monitoring Characteristics

Energy metering

42 individually monitored breakers with ½ controllable and whole house

Itron smart billing meter

Temperature and relative humidity

15 room temperature thermocouples

22 interior and exterior glass surface temperature thermocouples

2 room relative humidity sensors

2 mean radiant temperature sensors

Water and Environment

Controllable water flows at fixtures

Solar insolation (pyronometer) inside home

Weather station (Lab Home B only)

Data collection via Campbell Scientific data loggers

1 minute, 15 minute, and hourly

Per Home!

Occupancy Simulation

Simulation in accordance with Building America House Simulation Protocol (Hendron and Engebrecht, 2010)

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Lab Homes Hourly Simulated Electricity Use Connected Watts per hour

Interior Lighting

Equipment Sensible

Equipment Latent

Occupant Sensible

Occupant Latent

60W light simulating adult occupant

Null Testing

Building construction comparison

Homes’ air leakage (CFM air flow @50Pa) was within 6.2%

Homes’ duct leakage (CFM air flow @50Pa) was within 2%, similar distribution performance

Heat pumps’ performance similar ΔT across coil and air handler flow within 6%

Ventilation fans’ flows within 2.5%

Thermal conductivity with IR camera shows settling of R-11 batt insulation in 2x6 wall cavity in both homes.

SUMMARY DATA

Baseline Home Experimental Home

Average

Value

+/- Error Average

Value

+/- Error

CFM@25 491.6 30.4 492.8 30.5

CFM@50 657.6 27.8 701.4 26.7

ACH50 3.16 0.13 3.38 0.13

ACHn* 0.15 0.01 0.16 0.01

*n = 21.5, based on single story home in zone 3, minimal shielding

Null Testing

Whole House energy consumption comparison

y = 0.994xR² = 0.9993

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Lab Homes Null Testing: 1-22-12

Current Experiment

Energy consumption and thermal comfort impact of highly insulating (R-5) windows

Jeld Wen triple pane, argon/krypton filled, vinyl frame, triple Low-e 366 coating on two inside panes

Compared to “typical” double pane, aluminum frame clear glass windows

No window treatments in either home

Baseline Home

Windows

Highly Insulating

Windows

Windows

Patio

Doors Windows Patio Doors

U-Value 0.68 0.66 0.2 0.2

SHGC 0.7 0.66 0.19 0.19

VT 0.73 0.71 0.36 0.37

AL N/A N/A 0.3 0.1

Heating Season Results

Overall 7.6% +/- 1.9% heating season whole house savings

Strong dependence on weather

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Widespread Dust

11.0% +/- 1.9%

on cloudy days

4.6% +/- 1.4%

on sunny days

Sunny vs. Cloudy

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Impact on thermal comfort

Also examined window condensation potential and peak load impacts

Results show significant energy savings and thermal comfort improvement

Also suggest R-5 windows will be very beneficial in summer cooling season due to low SHGC

Heating season report to be finalized in June

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Hour

TC_KitSp(Deg F)

TC_DinSp(Deg F)

TC_LivSpWestIn(Deg F)

TC_LivEntry(Deg F)

TC_HallSp(Deg F)

TC_WBedSp(Deg F)

TC_EBedSp(Deg F)

TC_UtilitySp(Deg F)

TC_BathSp(Deg F)

TC_MBathSp(Deg F)

TC_MBedSp(Deg F)

Average

Set Point

Future Research Agenda

Initial study is focused on thermal performance of highly insulating (R5) windows (FY11/12).

Future planned research will evaluate grid-smart appliances & smart electric vehicle charging stations.

Future potential research may include ducted heat pump water heater, low-e storm windows, efficient enclosures, innovative HVAC technologies, non-intrusive load monitoring, and solar-thermal/PV.

The “multiple (5) outdoor refrigerator” experiment

For more info….

Visit our website (under development):

http://labhomes.pnnl.gov/

Email us:

labhomes@pnnl.gov

Contact the research team:

Sarah Widder – sarah.widder@pnnl.gov; 509-372-6396