Evaluating Home Performance

Homeowners Professionals

Residential Energy Field Guide to Photovoltaic Systems Energy Auditor Field Guide Mechanical Systems Field Guide Building Shell Field Guide Residential Ventilation Systems Residential HVAC Systems Evaluating Home Performance Hydronic Heating Systems Duct Testing and Sealing Blower Door Testing Testing Gas Furnaces AC Tuning and Troubleshooting Quick Tests for Heat Pumps

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Evaluating Home Performance
by John Krigger & Chris Dorsi

This publication guides the reader in using modern testing tools to discover the home’s best energy-saving opportunities.

Air leakage and heating efficiency are the two primary unknowns in assessing a home’s energy efficiency. This brief covers the best and most efficient way of evaluating these unknowns, identifying problems, and pursuing solutions during a one-time energy intervention. This technical brief suggests a sequence and logic to the process of testing, measuring, adjusting, and retrofitting. The following procedures are outlined.

Evaluating House Pressures
Testing Performance of Gas Furnaces
Evaluating System Airflow and Duct Design
Alternate Airflow Measurements
Improving System Airflow
Evaluating Duct Air Leakage
Sealing Ducts
Testing Building Airtightness
Determining Ventilation Effectiveness
Testing and Reducing Zone Pressures

The most relevant purpose for this publication has been as a handout for training programs that introduce the EPA’s Home Performance with Energy Star® to contractors who are new to the program.

We suggest reading Chapters 3 and 6 of Residential Energy: Cost Savings and Comfort for Existing Buildings before reading this technical brief. Some of this information is also found in Saturn Mechanical Systems Field Guide and Saturn Energy Auditor Field Guide.
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36 pages, Print $13