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Partnerships in Residential Building Research

NREL partners with government and industry leaders in the building industry to support research activities.

Building America Program

NREL conducts research in building technologies and processes for the U.S. Department of Energy's Building America Program. NREL has managed this program for DOE for more than a decade by evaluating builder teams for the program as well as evaluating and testing prototype homes. NREL also maintains and hosts the Building America Web site for DOE.

Habitat for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity's goal is to supply quality housing to poor families while reducing their energy cost burden, especially in light of ever-increasing energy prices. NREL partners with Habitat for Humanity to improve their construction and design process to enable the organization to create award-winning affordable homes that are not only cost-effective and volunteer friendly to build but highly energy efficient and a comfortable place to live.

In addition, with NREL's guidance, the DOE's Building America (BA) Program teams have provided energy analysis, hands-on training, and building-science recommendations to Habitat for Humanity International and more than 30 of its domestic affiliates. This partnership, formed in 1995 at Habitat's Environmental Initiative Kickoff, has brought Building America into the design, construction, and evaluation processes of more than 600 Habitat homes in 16 states.

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SMUD (Sacramento Municipal Utility District)

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) service territory is growing very quickly and residential construction constitutes a large portion of the overall energy load growth and peak energy demand for electricity. SMUD is promoting the next-generation of home construction designs and systems with the goal of making them standard practice among local builders. In 2005, NREL signed a Memorandum of Understanding with SMUD to help builders in the area construct energy-efficient homes while advancing energy-efficient home research at NREL. This multi-year, mutually beneficial agreement allows NREL researchers to evaluate cost and performance improvements in homes that are supported by SMUD and are constructed in their service territory. SMUD will share data with NREL from these collaborative projects, including utility bill information, impacts on their distribution system, energy and peak demand information, and performance of photovoltaic systems used in the projects. NREL's research is aiming for a 70% reduction in energy use in homes without compromising comfort or convenience. The intent is to provide the remaining 30% through onsite power supplied by photovoltaics, making the house a net-zero energy user.

Energy Star

The Energy Star program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency. Energy Star is a national, voluntary program that develops partnerships with the home building industry to construct homes that use at least 30% less energy than required by the Model Energy Code. NREL provides technical support to homebuilders for the creation of prototype homes that are more energy efficient than an Energy Star base case building. Home Performance with ENERGY STAR uses the growing awareness and credibility of the ENERGY STAR brand to encourage and facilitate whole-house energy improvements in existing homes through self-sustaining energy efficiency programs.

Partnerships for Home Energy Efficiency

NREL is among the agencies that partner with this program, which is a joint effort by the Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to to bring greater energy efficiency to the U.S. housing market. The program's goal is to help households cost-effectively save 10% or more on home energy bills over the next decade. It has developed a web portal that provides information on how to coordinate home energy savings. According to the release, an average American family could save $150 a year by taking advantage of home energy efficiencies. The portal will provide energy saving solutions for homeowners, contractors and builders, building managers, realtors, and others. For more information visit the Partnership's portal.