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A Residential Duct Leakage Case Study on 'Good Cents' Homes
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Date
2001
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Energy Systems Laboratory (http://esl.tamu.edu)
Texas A&M University (http://www.tamu.edu)
Texas A&M University (http://www.tamu.edu)
Abstract
The “Good Cents” program has been adopted by
many cities across the United States and has
encouraged builders to employ aggressive energy
conservation building techniques in residential
applications. The program is well established and
has been recognized for the added value it brings to
homeowners. The primary energy using system in a
residence is the heating and cooling system and in the
hot and humid Southeast Texas climate, cooling is
the predominant mode of operation for the HVAC
system. This makes the system particularly
susceptible to degraded performance if there are leaks
in the air distribution system. Nine Good Cents
homes in the College Station, Texas area were chosen
for a study to determine the extent of HVAC air
distribution leakage in the HVAC system. It was
found that all the homes had significant measured
leakage for the return-air side of the system. Houses
with vertical sheet-rock lined plenums had
significantly higher rates of return air leakage than
homes with ducted returns.