Richard E. Brown, Celina S. Atkinson, Jeffrey L. Warner, Judy A. Roberson,
Marla C. Sanchez, Sarah E. Bretz, and Jonathan G. Koomey

Proceedings of the 1998 ACEEE Summer Study
on Energy Efficiency in Buildings
LBNL-41561
August 1998

The Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR® Homes program promotes the construction of new homes that consume at least 30% less energy than the 1993 Model Energy Code specifications for heating, cooling, and water heating end-uses, as determined using the draft National Home Energy Rating System (HERS) Guidelines. We developed packages of energy-efficiency measures to help production home builders in 14 U.S. metropolitan areas meet the guidelines of this program. We evaluated the energy savings and costs of over 70 commercially available measures for the building shell and heating, cooling, and water heating equipment to optimize these packages for broad categories of new homes.

We began by developing building prototypes for energy analysis, based on a survey of construction practices in the 14 cities. We also compiled the best published price data for the more than 70 energy-efficiency measures. We then applied the draft HERS guidelines using the DOE-2 building simulation model, to accurately estimate the energy savings for a wide variety of efficiency measures. To select cost-optimized packages of measures that meet the ENERGY STAR guidelines, we devised an automated economic model that used the building simulation results and measure cost data. This model ordered the measures by cost-effectiveness, accounting for measure interactions to avoid double-counting of energy savings. The resulting packages of measures were modified for certain locations to eliminate measures that builders are reluctant to adopt because of limited product availability, home buyer concerns, and other factors. The packages were also adjusted to ensure greater consistency within each city.

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