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Energy Performance Remodeling Case Study: Habitat for Humanity Montgomery County (HFH-MC), Maryland

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Habitat for Humanity Montgomery County (HFH-MC) worked in conjunction with Montgomery County to purchase foreclosed homes, remodel them, and ultimately deliver 12 fully renovated homes to clients. The goals of the project include affordability, enhancing safety, improving durability, lowering the energy cost, and adhering to schedule and budget. As part of this project, HFH-MC partnered with Home Innovation Research Labs through the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Building America Program. The intent of the partnership was to address energy efficient remodeling within the context of affordable homes.

IRC Wall Bracing: Combined Wind Uplift and Shear Load Path

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As part of a comprehensive update of the 2009 International Residential Code (IRC) wall bracing provisions, a new requirement was introduced that braced wall panels must be presumed to resist combined (simultaneous) uplift and shear loads, unless an independent continuous uplift load path is provided using hurricane ties and metal straps. This change represents a significant shift in the prescriptive wall bracing provisions, with potential impacts on prescriptive braced wall amounts, performance of conventional braced wall methods, braced wall panel connection requirements, and development of alternative bracing solutions.

Radon-Resistant New Construction Practices in the Sale of New Homes

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The EPA is seeking to better understand successful radon-resistant new construction business and marketing practices among US homebuilders, with the goal of developing guidelines and strategies to assist other builders in conveying the value of radon reduction to prospective homebuyers.

Initial Study of the Moisture Performance of OSB-Sheathed Walls in Homes in Climate Zones 4 and 5

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This study is designed to document construction practices and obtain performance data for new houses framed in the fall of 2009 in the same geographical areas and by the same builders that experienced buckling of OSB wall sheathing in the winter of 2008-2009. The objective of the study is to attempt to isolate the variables or a combination of variables that are contributing to OSB wall sheathing buckling. In addition, moisture performance information is collected by sensors installed in wall cavities to better understand the in-service moisture conditions of OSB-sheathed walls during the first winter and spring following the construction process.

Quality Assurance Activities for New Homes

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This report is an interim report by Home Innovation Research Labs regarding their quality management activities for new high performance homes from January 2010 through June 2010. It is a summary and an overview of four full individual reports included in the Appendices. The report includes Home Innovation Research Labs’s current quality research products for new home construction.

Innovative Light Framed Wall Bracing Options

File Under: Structural Performance

Let-in bracing has been a viable option for bracing of conventional construction for many years. Recent testing conducted by Home Innovation Research Labs under conditions of both full and partial restraint reconfirmed that let-in bracing continues to be an acceptable method of bracing. The renewed interest in let-in bracing is triggered by the increasing demand from builders for cost-effective energy-efficient construction. Technological barriers to the use of let-in bracing include (1) the limitations on the flexibility of placing of doors and windows where a let-in brace is installed because of the requirements for a wide uninterrupted wall and (2) the need for notching of studs. In addition, the 2009 IRC bracing provisions increased the required amounts of diagonal bracing. For these reasons, the utility of traditional let-in braces and similar alternative bracing methods have become challenged and are in need of innovation to meet the demands of current code provisions.

Wind Load Design Considerations for Out-of-Plane Loading

File Under: Building Codes & Standards, Structural Performance

The residential building code provisions continue to evolve with new design and construction requirements introduced every code update cycle. These new requirements are typically the result of one of the following:

A product innovation that leads to a new method of construction that has not been previously included in the prescriptive building code requirements
A system innovation that leads to the use of existing materials in new applications or new configurations
A re-evaluation of conventional practices based on engineering or changed performance expectations

Evaluation of Wood Sole Plate Anchorage to Concrete Under Monotonic and Cyclic Loading

File Under: Building Codes & Standards, Structural Performance

The purpose of this testing program is to evaluate the performance of cast-in-place foundation anchor bolt connections representative of those used in wood-frame residential construction. This testing program responds to the recent changes in the American Concrete Institute’s Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete (ACI 318) that significantly reduce the design capacity of near-edge concrete anchors. This reduction has brought into question the conventional practice of using 2x4 sole plates with 1/2-inch bolts spaced at 4 feet or 6 feet on center. However, the new provisions of ACI 318 are based on research of anchorage systems for commercial and industrial construction and use conservative extrapolation of this research to the design of residential systems. Because significant differences exist in construction practices between residential and commercial applications including bolt diameters, edge distances, embedment lengths, bearing capacity of the anchored material, concrete strength, line of bolts spaced apart vs. bolt clusters, etc., it is envisioned that results of this study will help improve accuracy of design methods for residential anchors by capturing representative failure modes, response variability, and applicable safety margins.

Prototype House Evaluations: ZEH2 (JWM Companies)

File Under: Energy Efficiency & High-Performance Building, Sustainability

Armory Park del Sol is an urban infill project in an historic district in downtown Tucson, Arizona. When completed, the inner city subdivision will include over 92 homes that blend with the historic neighborhood yet include high performance features to dramatically reduce their energy footprint. All of the homes are designed to meet the voluntary Tucson Sustainable Energy Standard by performing 50% better than the Model Energy Code in addition to meeting the 2003 IECC.

Armory Park del Sol Community Report

File Under: Energy Efficiency & High-Performance Building, Sustainability

Armory Park del Sol (APdS) is a development of new homes in downtown Tucson’s historic neighborhood of Armory Park. The 14-acre redevelopment project fulfills the vision of developer John Wesley Miller to create a sustainable and livable urban in-fill community. The Home Innovation Research Labs worked with John Wesley Miller Companies through the Building America Program on prototype net-zero energy homes as well as on the community as a whole. Presented here is the analysis of this community of high performance homes built in the hot/mixed dry climate.