Mobile County Habitat Construction Manager Brian Stanley (right) with co-worker Josh Shedeck in front of the interior air handler closet in the Mobile demonstration house.

In the recovering communities along the Gulf Coast, the need for housing, particularly affordable housing, is still acute. While builders struggle to meet demand and keep up with the changing code environment, they have little energy to devote to learning new and better ways of building homes. Yet there is a prevalent interest throughout the whole region in not just rebuilding but in rebuilding the Gulf Coast better.

Given the opportunity to impact thousands of houses in dozens of communities, DOE has provided abundant technical resources to builders in the region on how to apply Building America’s proven approach to building high performance homes. In many markets across America, this type of technical assistance to production builders has created a ripple of change, in a challenging post-disaster environment, builders are reluctant to embrace any unnecessary change. To spur change, the Department of Energy funded a unique BAIHP effort to build demonstration houses in partnership with affordable housing providers. In addition to the normal complement of technical assistance, this demonstration effort will track and pay the incremental cost of the high performance package including staff time.

Even with this financial incentive, builders were reluctant to commitment their limited resources to the demonstration effort. After discussing the challenge with many affordable housing providers in the region, seven Habitat for Humanity affiliates in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi:

• HFH of Greater Baton Rouge (Louisiana)
• New Orleans Area HFH (Louisiana)
• West St. Tammany HFH (Covington, Louisiana)
• East St. Tammany HFH (Slidell, Louisiana)
• HFH of Mobile County (Alabama)
• Baldwin County HFH (Foley, Alabama)
• HFH of the Mississippi Gulf Coast (Gulf Port, Mississippi) (Read Press Release)

Researchers worked with the seven builders to evaluate their standard practices and identify a package of improvements from the Building America high performance recommendations that are appropriate for their construction process. Special attention was given to selecting improvements with broad applicability to maximize the benefit of the demonstration.

In 2008, four demonstration houses were completed in Slidell (2), Mobile, and Gulf Port. A fifth demonstration home was completed in February of 2009 in Baton Rouge and three more are planned for completion by the fall of 2009. Habitat in New Orleans attempted two demonstration houses but did not pass the thermal bypass inspection required by the Energy Star for New Homes program. After adjusting to staff changes, this affiliate may resume their demonstration effort in 2009.

Gulf Coast High Performance Affordable Housing Demonstration Project

East St. Tammany HFH	East St. Tammany HFH	HFH of the Mississippi Gulf Coast

Mobile County HFH	HFH of Greater Baton Rouge

Building America researchers conducted two workshops for builders in 2008 – one in Mobile with the local home builders association and another in Baton Rouge in with the LSU AgCenter’s La House program. Workshop materials cover the improvements in the demonstration houses (see bulleted list below) as well as building science for the hot-humid climate, an introduction to the home energy rating system’s HERS Index, and the Energy Star for Homes process.

Features of the Gulf Coast High Performance Affordable Demonstration Houses

Indoor Air Quality Features

• No atmospheric combustion heating or water heating equipment (therefore, no combustion safety measures required)
• Low radon potential (therefore, no mitigation system recommended)
• Indoor humidity and infiltration control strategies (estimated natural ach < 0.35)
  • House wrap, air sealing, and insulation checklist and inspection (ENERGY STAR Thermal Bypass Checklist) Top plate and exterior wall penetrations sealed
  • For frame floors: bottom plate and floor deck penetrations sealed
  • Passive, positive pressure ventilation when Heat/AC operates
  • Heating and cooling equipment right-sized with ACCA Manual J
  • Kitchen and bath exhaust fans ducted to outside for humidity control
  • Interior air handler closet (sealed and separated from attic and crawl space)
  • R-13 wall insulation - dense pack cellulose or batt (fiberglass or recycled cotton) installed to meet RESNET Class I quality requirements
  • Sill seal under bottom plate
  • Can lights (when present) are rated for insulation contact and air tight (ICAT)

Durability* Features

• Air handler in conditioned space (less harsh environment than attic)
• Water heater located in attached storage room (less harsh environment than attic)
• Long life fiber cement siding
• Ship-lapped window and door flashing
• Kitchen and bath exhaust fans ducted to outside for humidity control
• 2’0” overhangs to direct water away from house
• Slab raised to promote drainage away from foundation
  
  *Disaster resistance measures are addressed by prevailing local codes and are outside the scope of this Department of Energy activity.

Energy Efficiency Features (HERS Index ~70)

• R-30 blown cellulose attic insulation
• R-13 wall insulation meeting RESNET Class I requirements
• Low-E double pane windows
• At least 75% fluorescent lighting
• ENERGY STAR refrigerator (412 kWh/year) and ceiling fans (when present)
• High efficiency heat pump, (at least SEER 14, HSPF 8.5)
• Interior air handler closet (sealed and separated from attic and crawl space)
• Radiant barrier decking
• Sealed air distribution duct system (Qn,out = 0.03 or less)
• Light colored exterior finishes
• Insulated exterior doors with double pane lites

Thermal Bypass Inspection includes installing wall insulation to fill the stud bays with little or no compression
or gaps (meets RESNET Insulation Grade I.) Baton Rouge Habitat (left) works with challenging recycled cotton
batts which they carefully cut to fit around penetrations in this exterior wall. Mobile County Habitat (right)
achieves Grade I by insulating walls with blown in cellulose.

Interior air handler closet (left) protects heating and cooling equipment from extreme temperatures and
humidity levels and minimizes duct leakage into the return plenum. All joints and edges in the closet are
sealed (middle and right) to fully isolate the closet from the attic. Center picture shows outside air duct that
provides a small amount of ventilation air to the return plenum for conditioning. This ensures the house
operates at a slightly positive pressure – minimizing the potential for infiltration of hot humid air.

For More Information Contact: Janet McIlvaine (janet@fsec.ucf.edu) or David Beal (david@fsec.ucf.edu)