Residential Buildings Research Projects
Our research accelerates the introduction of energy-efficient building technologies and practices into the homebuilding and retrofit marketplace. Research is conducted in two areas: systems integration and energy analysis. Systems integration research and development seeks to optimize the use of individual components within the context of the entire building as a "building system" rather than focusing on the optimization of individual building components. Feedback from systems research results are then used to target the research and development on individual building components (i.e., building envelope, equipment, appliances).
Our research goal aligns with the U.S. Department of Energy's goal to develop homes that are 50% more efficient through integrated energy efficiency solutions that can be successfully used on a large scale to reduce whole-house energy use in new and existing homes.
NREL's primary research partner for residential buildings research is the U.S. Department of Energy's Building America Program, which works with some of the nation's most innovative production homebuilders as well as contractors active in retrofitting existing homes. We are helping the Building America Program to document research results and to develop case studies required to help contractors in the U.S. dramatically reduce the energy required by residential buildings.
