March 2004
NREL volunteers construct an energy-efficient solar home for Habitat for Humanity in celebration of NREL's 25th anniversary.
|
Staff from the Kansas City Habitat for Humanity visited the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in February 2004 to collaborate on creating an energy efficient solar home in Kansas City, Missouri. The home, inspired by NREL's 25th Anniversary Habitat home, will be sponsored by the Midwest Research Institute (MRI).
The Kansas City project will use lessons learned from working with the Denver Habitat Affiliate to support development of an energy efficient prototype for the Kansas City climate.
The Kansas City home will be a 2-story, 4- bedroom home constructed using insulated concrete forms (ICF). ICF construction produces a strong, tight, and quiet building shell. The home will be well-insulated and solar tempered using orientation specific low-e windows. A high efficiency air conditioner and gas furnace will deliver space heating and cooling through ductwork contained within the conditioned space. Solar water heating and a photovoltaic system will augment the energy efficient package. Though plans are far from finalized, the home is expected to reduce total energy demand by more than 50% compared to the Building America benchmark.
When the house is completed this summer, a lucky Habitat family will have a home that reduces the energy cost burden on their limited resources, Kansas City Habitat will have experience in techniques and technologies that can be used to reduce the energy consumption, and NREL will have a research case study in the application of the systems approach to reduce whole house energy use in affordable homes. It's a win-win-win project!
For more about Habitat for Humanity visit their Web site.
|
