Results of the Bonneville Power Administration weatherization and tightening projects at the Midway substation residential community

As part of a regional conservation program, the Bonneville Power Administration retrofitted 18 houses at its Midway substation in central Washington and monitored the results for a three year period. The 18 houses were divided into three groups, or cells. During the first year of the project, energy consumption was monitored but no changes were made to the houses. Prior to the second year of the project, Cell 2 received attic and crawlspace insulation, foundation sill caulking, and increased attic ventilation. Cell 3 received these retrofits plus storm windows and doors, and Cell 1 served as the control group. Before the beginning of the project's third year, each house in Cell 1 received 22 hours of infiltration reduction weatherization or house tightening. Each house in Cell 3 received 10 hours of this same type of weatherization. Cell 2 served as the control group for the house doctoring phase of the project. Energy consumption and weather data were monitored for the entire three year period. Before and after each set of retrofits, leakage area measurements were made using blower door fan pressurization, thereby allowing calculation of heating season infiltration rates. An energy use model correlating energy consumption with outside temperature wasmore » developed in order to determine improvements to the thermal conductance of the building envelope as a result of the retrofits. Energy savings were calculated based on the results of the energy use model and, as a check on these findings, the Computerized Instrumented Residential Analysis (CIRA) load calculation program developed at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory provided a theoretical estimate of the savings resulting from the retrofits.« less