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Measured Cooling Performance of Two-story Homes in Dallas, Texas; Insulated Concrete Form Versus Frame Construction
Abstract
Four occupied homes near Dallas, Texas were
monitored to compare heating and cooling energy
use. Two homes were built with typical wood frame
construction, the other two with insulated concrete
form (ICF) construction.
Remote data loggers collected average hourly
indoor and outdoor temperature, relative humidity,
furnace runtime fraction, total building electrical
energy and HVAC energy use. The loggers recorded
data from November 1999 through August 2000.
Results show that insulated concrete form
construction can reduce cooling energy use 17 to
19% in two-story homes in the north Texas climate.
Two adjustments to the measured data were made to
compensate for differences between the homes: (1)
cooling energy use was normalized to remove the
impact of miscellaneous energy use that introduces
heat into the home (e.g. lights & appliances), and (2)
duct leakage differences simulated in a DOE2-based
software reduced the measured savings for ICF
construction by 4%. Other differences noted between
the homes that were not quantified included occupant
impacts, exterior wall color (or absorptance) and an
attic radiant barrier absent in one of the homes.
Citation
Chasar, D.; Moyer, N.; Rudd, A. F.; Parker, D.; Chandra, S. (2002). Measured Cooling Performance of Two-story Homes in Dallas, Texas; Insulated Concrete Form Versus Frame Construction. Energy Systems Laboratory (http://esl.tamu.edu); Texas A&M University (http://www.tamu.edu). Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /4587.