Institute For Health in the Built Environment
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This program was formerly known as the Center for Housing Innovation.
The Institute for Health in the Built Environment at the University of Oregon is passionate about combining research (https://buildhealth.uoregon.edu/research-2/) and design in order to create a healthier built environment and population. Click here (https://buildhealth.uoregon.edu/about/) to find out more about the institute.
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Browsing Institute For Health in the Built Environment by Subject "Buildings -- Energy conservation"
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Item Open Access AEDOT prototype I : building massing input/output template(Center for Housing Innovation, University of Oregon, 1991-12-31)Item Open Access Calibration of the boundary layer wind tunnel : progress report(Center for Housing Innovation, University of Oregon, 1990-12) Ryan, C. P.; Berg, Rudy; Brown, G. Z.Since 1989 the U. S. Department of Energy has sponsored a research program organized to improve energy efficiency in industrialized housing. Two research centers share responsibility for the Energy Efficient Industrialized Housing (BEIH) program: the Center for Housing Innovation at the University of Oregon and the Florida Solar Energy Center, a research institute of the University of Central Florida. Additional funding for the program is provided by non-DOE participants from private industry, state governments and utilities. The program is guided by a steering committee composed of industry and government representatives. Industrialization of U.S. housing production varies from mobile home builders who ship furnished houses to the site, to production builders who assemble factory produced components on the site. Such housing can be divided into four major categories: HUD code (mobile) homes, modular houses, panelized houses, and production built houses. There are many hybrids of these categories. The goal of the Energy Efficient Industrialized Housing research project is to develop techniques to produce marketable industrialized housing that is 25% more energy efficient than required by today's most stringent U.S. residential codes, yet less costly than present homes. One aspect of the EEIH project is testing the energy performance of houses at several stages from design through occupancy. The activity described here comprises part of Task 2.6, "Tests of Construction Methods, Products, and Materials," a process which involves both field and laboratory studies. Toward this end the project will use the low speed boundary layer wind tunnel to study building ventilation and microclimates. This report describes progress toward the calibration of this instrument. First is a description of the tunnel itself -- a duct roughly 60 feet long, coupled to a variable speed fan, and shaped to provide a smooth air flow with minimum background turbulence. During calibration this level of turbulence was examined using the tunnel's three-part set of instruments: anemometry sensors (TSI Model 1066) and electronics, data acquisition system (IDAC-1000 plus custom communication program), and controlling Macintosh computer.Item Open Access Climate Responsive Earth-Sheltered Buildings(Center for Housing Innovation, University of Oregon, 1981-03) Brown, G. Z.; Novitski, B. J.An understanding of the impact of climate on the built environment can lead to the' design of more fuel-efficient buildings. The authors present a methodology for analyzing climate conditions in terms of the architectural response required for thermal comfort. They used hourly climate data for several locations, and from these data determined diurnal and seasonal climate patterns. Although climate varies widely in different locations, several patterns - such as cold morning, comfortable midday, cold night - are common throughout North America in different seasons. Through proper architectural and site treatment, buildings can be designed to accommodate these patterns, effectively increasing the amount of thermally comfortable time. The authors find that earth-sheltered buildings can be designed in response to dynamic climate conditions. In this way, the outside spaces associated with underground buildings as well as the inside spaces can also be designed for thermal comfort, thereby increasing the livable space of the buildings.Item Open Access Impacts of climate change on the energy performance of buildings in the United States(Center for Housing Innovation, University of Oregon, 1996) Loveland, Joel; Brown, G. Z.This study uses computer simulation techniques to assess the impacts of climate change on building energy demand. This analysis allows for the characterization of the potential for reducing the energy use of buildings in a quantitative manner and therefore improving building design. Six cities and five building types representing a range of climates and building occupancies were modeled. Three design strategies for improving energy performance under warmed conditions are compared to a basecase. The study concludes that annual cooling loads will increase at a much greater rate than heating loads will decrease; The timing, magnitude and duration of short term changes, peaks, is as large a concern as the sheer magnitude of the large annual changes in demand due to Global Warming; new methods of resource acquisition will have to be implemented to respond to the new energy resource demands; and a new set of incremental measures, conservation targets, will have to be developed to support new resources. The results of the study indicate that research and demonstration of regional, building unit area weighted, zero energy growth, energy demand targets should be developed. These regional energy conservation targets should emphasize the saving of lost opportunity resources in the design of the most permanent of the building systems, the building's exterior skin geometry, assembly and interiors. The study indicates that the clearest specific target for reducing energy use under Global Warming is the design of windows. The research, design, and demonstration of windows that act as an integrated lighting system with the electric lighting; admitting daylight, view, and cooling ventilation without admitting sunlight; should be a major thrust for research and development of the 1990's.Item Open Access Integrating an energy evaluation module with a CAD program : a feasibility study(Center for Housing Innovation, University of Oregon, 1991-12) Meacham, Matthew A. (Matthew Andy), 1959-; Brown, G. Z.The U.S. housing industry appears to be on the brink of extensive computerization as a result of competitive pressures within the U.S.A., and from Europe and Japan. The Japanese lead the U.S. in computerizing the sales through design processes and the Swedes and Norwegians lead in the design through production processes. Computer-based tools for evaluating the energy performance of buildings have low levels of use throughout the industrialized housing field. If a computer- based energy evaluation tool is to be used, it must fit with the computers and software already used to produce and market industrialized housing. Therefore an energy tool which works with CAD systems, the most common non MIS computer use in industrialized housing, is more likely to be useful and actually utilized than one which does not.