The Winding Road Towards “Zero” Energy: Lessons from Monitoring Efficient Solar Homes

Srikanth Puttagunta, Robb A. Aldrich, Douglas K. Owens, and Gayathri Vijayakumar, Steven Winter Associates, Inc.

Keywords

Abstract

Through U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Building America program, Steven Winter Associates, Inc. has been working with builders of efficient, solar homes around the country. The authors have performed energy modeling of the buildings and have installed detailed monitoring of several solar homes to evaluate – and to demonstrate – the energy performance of the building systems. Monitoring of solar homes in South Chicago, IL; Atlantic City, NJ; Hadley, MA; and Madison, WI, showed solar electric systems providing between 10% and 76% of home electric loads. Solar thermal systems monitored provided 60-65% of annual domestic hot water loads. The results also highlighted several areas (including HVAC distribution, ventilation, lighting, occupant behavior, and commissioning) which have significant impacts on home energy performance and are sometimes overlooked by builders and designers. The authors present the results from these monitoring efforts in hope that they may be useful for others moving towards “zero energy.”