Passive heating and cooling strategies for single family housing in Fresno, California: a case study

Abstract

This study focuses on the integration of passive heating, cooling, and ventilating techniques for detached single family housing in Fresno, California. The energy use and patterns of energy use were simulated for a typical tract house in Fresno, and serves as a case study, to which energy saving strategies were applied and evaluated using Ener-Win software. The effectiveness of each strategy was assessed based on the annual savings, the initial cost, and a life-cycle cost analysis. Specific areas of evaluation include: shading, improving the R-value and infiltration rate of the building envelope, thermal mass, natural ventilation, and evaporative cooling. The optimum strategies selected utilize only traditional building techniques. Evaporative cooling used in conjunction with an air conditioner was the most effective energy reducing strategy, but a combination of purely passive strategies yield competitive results. Although the typical Fresno home is already energy efficient, small alterations provide energy savings up to 75% for space conditioning.