EEBA's High Performance Home Blog

Framework climate and energy goals. As the most industrialized region in NWE, the private housing sector also accounts for almost one-third of all C02 emissions. The EU 2030 Framework goals are to cut C02 emissions by 40%, increase the use of renewable energy by 27% and to provide at least 27% energy savings across Europe. Interreg North-West Europe project Housing 4.0 Energy (H4.0E) is a group of companies and individuals around NWE, working together to solve their housing and energy crisis. H4.0E is funded by € 2.5 Million in European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (perspective: the ERDF total budget is € 4.2 Million) and looks to develop low-energy, low-carbon, near-zero energy affordable housing that is easily repeatable using digitization. H4.0E is focused on a Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) approach using digital design and self-building to simplify the building process. The 48 near zero energy/zero energy pilot homes will be built within the first 18... read more

Last week we wrote about a couple funding opportunities through the Department of Energy. Another $33.5 million is now available through the Building Technologies Office for energy efficient, advanced building construction technologies and practices. The BTO’s focus will be to “develop deep energy retrofit and new construction technologies that holistically tackle a combination of envelope, heating, cooling, water heating, and ventilation issues, and hold appeal for both building owners and occupants.” Concept papers are due 6/10/19. The topics of interest for this FOA are: Integrated Building Retrofits New Construction Technologies Advanced Technology Integration Why should you care about these types of announcements? Because they are opportunities for us to advance our industry and to take advantage of the energy breakthroughs that are continuing to push down the cost of renewable energy. Solar farms are showing up in communities and large corporations are... read more

A recent Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) by the Department of Energy (DOE) is requesting proposals in three areas to improve U.S. competitiveness surrounding energy technologies and domestic manufacturing for energy storage. The FOA will look to support innovative, advanced manufacturing research and development programs focused on advanced materials, industrial efficiency and productivity, and the electrical grid. "By focusing on energy-related advanced manufacturing technologies, we are building a new era of manufacturing that will stimulate the economy, create jobs and build American energy independence," says U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry. $98 million in awards will be funded to high-impact, early to mid-stage research in three topic areas: Topic 1: Innovations for the Manufacture of Advanced Materials Focuses on employing machine learning to develop better batteries, phase change storage materials for heating and cooling applications, and new... read more

by Nathan Kahre Long nights, worrying over designs, stressing over deadlines, and more work than I have ever been put through before, this is what I remember from when I competed in what was Race to Zero, now the Solar Decathlon Design Challenge. What I also remember is the time spent working with a team, iterations of energy models, and the joy of getting to present all my hard work. I thank Solar Decathlon Design Challenge for the opportunities that I have had in the high-performance home industry. The competition forced me to take the theoretical and make it real. It also put me in connection with experts across the country and landed me my first job in the industry. After spending a day of stressing over the competition, I ended up meeting this crazy production builder that was focusing on net zero homes and wanted to implement new products and techniques to improve the indoor air quality in their homes and hopefully impact the health of the occupants. That twenty-minute ... read more

Mike Barcik, Senior Engineer at Southface Institute, will be leading The HERS Associate & Taking the Performance Path: An Introduction to the HERS Index & IECC Compliance in Orlando, FL on May 14, 2019. The HERS Associate & Taking the Performance Path: An Introduction to the HERS Index & IECC Compliance course is a one-day event that reviews the HERS Index, RESNET, and Building Science principles as they relate to the Performance Path option in the IECC. Participants will learn about the strategies and tools used by HERS Raters to perform analysis of a house to produce a HERS Index Score. The last part of the session will be spent reviewing energy rating software that is most often used by HERS professionals, and manipulating various construction assemblies to see the effect of HERS Index scores. CEUs are available for AIA/CES (HSW), BPI, ICC, NAHB, NARI and NATE. The course will be held at Trane North Florida DSO, 3401 WD Judge Road, Suite 110, Orlando FL ... read more