Buildings and Standards
Appliance Standards Program
D&R has supported the development of appliance standards for the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Building Technologies (BT) Program since 2006. This work has included assessing the markets for battery chargers (BCs) and external power supplies (EPSs). In these assessments, D&R has identified the variety of consumer products that use BCs and EPSs, described trends in the markets for these products and the manner in which they drive demand, charted distribution networks, and identified key manufacturers. D&R has also created computer simulation models to estimate the national energy savings potential and net present value of proposed efficiency standards for these products.
Best Practices Series, Building America
Working with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), D&R supported Building America, DOE's residential new construction research, development, and demonstration program. The program has assisted in the construction of approximately 40,000 high-performance homes. D&R developed the Building America Best Practices Series, guidebooks for building high-quality, energy-efficient homes. Guidebooks were developed for every climate type showing how to achieve 30 percent energy savings in space heating, cooling, and water heating.
Buildings Energy Data Book
In 1997, D&R developed the Buildings Energy Data Book for DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Updated annually by D&R, the Data Book is the most current reference for residential and commercial buildings energy data in the country. The Data Book contains more than 400 data tables with the latest energy consumption, economic, technological, and environmental statistics for buildings.
Energy Efficient Rehab Advisor
In 2002 and 2003, D&R worked with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Office of Policy Development and Research to revise the Energy Efficiency Rehabilitation Guidelines first developed in 1996. This effort included reviewing the existing documents for relevance and success in reaching the target audience, testing the original building science, and assessing tools and resources. D&R’s engineers and building scientists conducted the engineering research and analysis, collaborating with communications staff to identify meet the information needs of the target audience. D&R created a web-based tool, the Energy Efficient Rehab Advisor, to deliver information tailored to a variety of audiences. The Rehab Advisor provides practical, real-world solutions for energy-efficient residential building retrofits. D&R updated the Rehab Advisor in 2005 and again in 2009 to make it consistent with current building codes, equipment standards, remodeling costs, and utility rates.
Home Repair Training Expos
After hurricanes Katrina and Rita, D&R launched a project to develop and deliver five You Can Repair Your Storm-Damaged Home Workshops and Product Expos for homeowners in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. D&R recruited DOE, FEMA, the Red Cross, The Home Depot, state and local governments, utilities, and product manufacturers to support the workshops, which provided hands-on training for more than 5,000 homeowners unable to find contractors to repair their homes. The trainings also taught homeowners how to deal with mold and other health issues associated with flooding.
HUD’s Utility Benchmarking Tool for Public Housing Authorities
From 2004 through 2007, D&R collected data to develop an accurate and verifiable Utility Benchmarking System that helps public housing authorities (PHAs) nationwide quickly and easily assess the energy and domestic water performance of their residential housing stock. D&R needed the PHAs to submit the data voluntarily, but the data pool would only yield a statistically significant model if enough PHAs submitted data. D&R worked with HUD, Oak Ridge National Laboratories, and several PHAs to develop and deploy a web-based data collection and quality control system that made it easy for PHAs to submit sufficient data to ensure the model’s statistical accuracy. The benchmarking tools allow PHAs to identify buildings that are good, marginal, and poor energy performers, and prioritize improvements based on their budget constraints. The tools also allow the PHAs and HUD to set utility budget targets and goals.
Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH)
From 2002 until 2008, D&R worked with the HUD's PATH program to improve the quality and affordability of the nation’s housing stock. D&R developed a strategic plan to identify PATH’s priority professional and consumer audiences, the best vehicles for reaching those audiences, and the key messages and information tools for each. In addition to guiding the development of program campaigns, events, technology tools, and editorial efforts, D&R’s dissemination and outreach plan launched an industry-wide partnership program to help spur the adoption of new technologies that can improve the efficiency, durability, and safety of U.S. homes. D&R’s work included over 100 articles in housing and consumer magazines and 31 case studies on traditional builders and remodelers who adopted green technologies.
Solar Decathlon
Held on the National Mall in Washington, DC, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon is a two-week competition among college and university teams from around the world to design, build, and operate a solar-powered house. This event attracts more than 250,000 people and generates worldwide press coverage.
In 2009, D&R worked with the National Education Association (NEA) to develop the Student Broadcast Network, which brought the Solar Decathlon to students nationwide for the first time. Under D&R’s direction, a group of middle school students broadcast from the Decathlon for 10 days into thousands of K-12 classrooms. The programs were posted on the NEA website, You Tube, School Tube, and the Solar Education Network. Corporations including Allied Chemical, Dell Computer, and Nationwide Marketing distributed the broadcasts on their websites. D&R also developed and managed Solar Education Day on October 13, when thousands of middle school students arrived on the Mall to tour the Solar Village and meet the Decathlon teams. D&R conducted workshops for more than 2,000 middle school students on energy efficiency and renewable energy.
For the 2011 Decathlon, D&R is again coordinating educational outreach efforts for DOE in partnership with NEA. To involve teachers, D&R is developing an exhibit for the NEA Expo in Chicago in July. D&R is also working with the National Audubon Society and the Earth Day Network to expand the outreach of the Student Broadcast Network.
Weatherization Assistance Program
D&R provides organizational, technical, and administrative support to DOE’s Weatherization Assistance Program. D&R has conducted technical reviews of advanced energy audits, examined how to integrate technologies into common practice, and developed the national regulatory requirements for the computerized energy audit used by many state weatherization programs. D&R also developed a bulk-purchasing program for ENERGY STAR qualified products for state and local weatherization agencies. In its current contract, D&R is reviewing state building energy audit procedures and conducting building energy modeling. In 2011, D&R completed a two-year project to help DOE develop the first national curriculum for weatherization trainers, including curriculum for weatherization trainers, including classroom and in-the-field training materials on weatherization of mobile homes and single-family and multifamily buildingsclassroom and in-the-field training materials on weatherization of mobile homes and single-family and multifamily buildings.