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https://www.energy.gov/eere/buildings/zero-energy-ready-home-program https://www.energy.gov/eere/buildings/zero-energy-ready-home... seems to be the main landin
by Syonyk 4y ago
https://www.energy.gov/eere/buildings/zero-energy-ready-home-program https://www.energy.gov/eere/buildings/zero-energy-ready-home... seems to be the main landing page, and it's a bit handwaving...
> A DOE Zero Energy Ready Home is a high-performance home that is so energy efficient that a renewable energy system could offset most or all the home's annual energy use.
"Most or all" and "annual energy use" allow for some massive wiggle room. Annual energy use by who? A family with a couple teenage girls is going to likely use a lot more hot water than a family with a three year old boy.
I can't find any actual concrete details on it, annoyingly. So I have to agree that it's more of a feel-good listing until proven otherwise.
- giantg2 4y agoI was really interested in the insulation part and building design. The only thing I could find was that it has to be energy star, which is only 10% better insulation than code.
- mikeyouse 4y agoACH2.0 in most of the upper part of the country is pretty aggressive. The 2015 ICC isn't a slouch either -- say you're in Chicagoland building a new home, this would mandate R49 in the attic, R20 in the walls (or R13 in the bays + R5 exterior), R15 on basement walls, R30 in the floors. It could of course be much more aggressive, and likely will be eventually, but if you had a ACH2 house with those insulation values, minimum U-0.3 windows, >0.94 efficient gas furnace / high quality heat pumps, it would be a very efficient house. Table R402.1.2 here: https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/IECC2015/chapter-4-re-residential-energy-efficiency#IECC2015_Pt02_Ch04_SecR402 https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/IECC2015/chapter-4-re-resi...