Simplified Space Conditioning in Low-Load Homes
TO3 2.1.6: Simplified Space Conditioning
IBACOS anticipates that houses achieving 50% whole-house source energy savings with respect to the Building America 2010 Benchmark (Hendron and Engebrecht 2010a) will be considered "low load." Low load is defined by IBACOS as a house with a thermal enclosure that yields a maximum space heating and cooling load of less than 10 Btu/h/ft2 of conditioned floor area (31.5 W/m2 [1,200 ft2 /ton]). These small loads can be met by systems other than today's typical ducted forced-air systems. For example, distributed fan coils with minimized ducts, terminal fan coil units, or point source units with buoyant force or ventilation-driven distribution may provide sufficient occupant comfort in a low-load home. These systems, which can have lower total installed costs than traditional ducted forced-air systems (Stecher 2011), allow the thermal enclosure characteristics of low-load houses to provide first-cost savings in addition to operational cost savings.
The purpose of this study is to help determine cost-effective solutions for heating and cooling houses that are designed to be energy efficient. This is done by testing the occupant comfort performance of some concepts that may already exist on the market but are not in use by production homebuilders. In some cases, the products are market available, but their use in housing may be a new application. The standards used to assess the performance of the systems in this study are Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) Manual RS (Rutkowski 1997) and ASHRAE Standard 55-2010 (ASHRAE 2010a).
Citation Formats
TY - DATA
AB - TO3 2.1.6: Simplified Space Conditioning
IBACOS anticipates that houses achieving 50% whole-house source energy savings with respect to the Building America 2010 Benchmark (Hendron and Engebrecht 2010a) will be considered "low load." Low load is defined by IBACOS as a house with a thermal enclosure that yields a maximum space heating and cooling load of less than 10 Btu/h/ft2 of conditioned floor area (31.5 W/m2 [1,200 ft2 /ton]). These small loads can be met by systems other than today's typical ducted forced-air systems. For example, distributed fan coils with minimized ducts, terminal fan coil units, or point source units with buoyant force or ventilation-driven distribution may provide sufficient occupant comfort in a low-load home. These systems, which can have lower total installed costs than traditional ducted forced-air systems (Stecher 2011), allow the thermal enclosure characteristics of low-load houses to provide first-cost savings in addition to operational cost savings.
The purpose of this study is to help determine cost-effective solutions for heating and cooling houses that are designed to be energy efficient. This is done by testing the occupant comfort performance of some concepts that may already exist on the market but are not in use by production homebuilders. In some cases, the products are market available, but their use in housing may be a new application. The standards used to assess the performance of the systems in this study are Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) Manual RS (Rutkowski 1997) and ASHRAE Standard 55-2010 (ASHRAE 2010a).
AU - Poerschke, Andrew
A2 - Stecher, Dave
DB - Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI)
DP - Open EI | National Renewable Energy Laboratory
DO - 10.25984/2204240
KW - building america
KW - BuildingAmerica
KW - ACCA Manual RS
KW - ASHRAE Standard 55
KW - hvac
KW - cold
KW - residential
KW - new construction
KW - unoccupied house
KW - airflow
KW - thermal enclosure
KW - cost effectiveness
KW - single family detached
KW - whole-home
KW - comfort
KW - space conditioning
LA - English
DA - 2016/04/27
PY - 2016
PB - Ibacos Innovation
T1 - Simplified Space Conditioning in Low-Load Homes
UR - https://doi.org/10.25984/2204240
ER -
Poerschke, Andrew, and Dave Stecher. Simplified Space Conditioning in Low-Load Homes. Ibacos Innovation, 27 April, 2016, Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI). https://doi.org/10.25984/2204240.
Poerschke, A., & Stecher, D. (2016). Simplified Space Conditioning in Low-Load Homes. [Data set]. Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI). Ibacos Innovation. https://doi.org/10.25984/2204240
Poerschke, Andrew and Dave Stecher. Simplified Space Conditioning in Low-Load Homes. Ibacos Innovation, April, 27, 2016. Distributed by Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI). https://doi.org/10.25984/2204240
@misc{OEDI_Dataset_5230,
title = {Simplified Space Conditioning in Low-Load Homes},
author = {Poerschke, Andrew and Stecher, Dave},
abstractNote = {TO3 2.1.6: Simplified Space Conditioning
IBACOS anticipates that houses achieving 50\% whole-house source energy savings with respect to the Building America 2010 Benchmark (Hendron and Engebrecht 2010a) will be considered "low load." Low load is defined by IBACOS as a house with a thermal enclosure that yields a maximum space heating and cooling load of less than 10 Btu/h/ft2 of conditioned floor area (31.5 W/m2 [1,200 ft2 /ton]). These small loads can be met by systems other than today's typical ducted forced-air systems. For example, distributed fan coils with minimized ducts, terminal fan coil units, or point source units with buoyant force or ventilation-driven distribution may provide sufficient occupant comfort in a low-load home. These systems, which can have lower total installed costs than traditional ducted forced-air systems (Stecher 2011), allow the thermal enclosure characteristics of low-load houses to provide first-cost savings in addition to operational cost savings.
The purpose of this study is to help determine cost-effective solutions for heating and cooling houses that are designed to be energy efficient. This is done by testing the occupant comfort performance of some concepts that may already exist on the market but are not in use by production homebuilders. In some cases, the products are market available, but their use in housing may be a new application. The standards used to assess the performance of the systems in this study are Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) Manual RS (Rutkowski 1997) and ASHRAE Standard 55-2010 (ASHRAE 2010a).},
url = {https://data.openei.org/submissions/5230},
year = {2016},
howpublished = {Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI), Ibacos Innovation, https://doi.org/10.25984/2204240},
note = {Accessed: 2025-07-06},
doi = {10.25984/2204240}
}
https://dx.doi.org/10.25984/2204240
Details
Data from Apr 27, 2016
Last updated Nov 1, 2023
Submitted Apr 27, 2016
Organization
Ibacos Innovation
Contact
Andrew Poerschke
Authors
Research Areas
Keywords
building america, BuildingAmerica, ACCA Manual RS, ASHRAE Standard 55, hvac, cold, residential, new construction, unoccupied house, airflow, thermal enclosure, cost effectiveness, single family detached, whole-home, comfort, space conditioningDOE Project Details
Project Name Building America
Project Number FY14 AOP 1.9.1.19
