TVA Leases Three Knoxville Homes For 3-Year Energy Efficiency Study

August 13, 2009

TVA will test building techniques, technologies and household appliances at three experimental houses over the next three years to learn more about how cutting-edge residential construction affects energy efficiency in homes in the Tennessee Valley region. The three houses, in Knoxville’s Campbell Creek Subdivision, include a newly built home that meets Energy Star Performance standards, a second home modified with improvements that could easily be made to existing homes for increased efficiency; and a third home built from the ground up to be a “near-Zero Energy Home.”

TVA will use data collected from the houses to develop information and programs to help the public choose energy efficiency packages for their homes and to help builders provide affordable, near-Zero Energy Homes in the future.  TVA also intends to test technologies that enable consumers to better manage the energy they use and save money on their electric bills.

“Going forward, this three-year project will help TVA fine-tune its energy efficiency products so that we can work with local distributors to help homeowners add energy efficiency and money-saving measures to their existing homes,” said Joe Hoagland, TVA’s vice president for Environmental Science, Technology and Policy.  “Along with the expertise of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the building industry, these homes gives us a multimillion-dollar research laboratory for about 10 percent of the cost of creating the testing capacity in a laboratory setting.  This project is an enormous resource to TVA and local distributors of TVA power, and we believe it’s the only one of its kind in the world.”

In addition to ORNL, TVA’s partners in the project are the Electric Power Research Institute and General Electric, which will supply the GE heat pump water heater in the retrofitted home and GE Energy Star appliances.  Several other companies are supplying building materials and cutting-edge technology to the demonstration project, including:

• Louisiana Pacific, TechShield roof sheathing
• DOW Chemical, structural insulated sheathing for walls
• Sustainable Future, solar water heating system
• BioBased, foam insulation
• Johns Manville, fiberglass spider and batt insulation
• Serious Materials, super insulating windows
• Fantech, energy recovery ventilator
• Associated Equipment Company,  2-ton Amana heat pump

TVA also worked closely on the project with Michael Rhodes, owner of the homes, and builder John Kerr.  Both expressed an interest in learning about new building technologies that will be explored in this project.  The homes are served by Lenoir City Utilities Board.

For more information on this project, please visit the Web page at www.tva.com/campbellcreekresearchhomes.

TVA is the nation’s largest public power provider and is completely self-financing.  TVA provides power to large industries and 158 power distributors that serve approximately 9 million consumers in seven southeastern states.  TVA also manages the Tennessee River and its tributaries to provide multiple benefits, including flood damage reduction, navigation, water quality and recreation.

 

Media Contact

Barbara Martocci, Knoxville, (865) 632-8632
TVA News Bureau, Knoxville, (865) 632-6000

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