Building America Retrofit Field Validation and Demonstration

DOE’s Building America Program has been a source of innovations in residential building energy efficiency and performance, indoor air quality and comfort, durability, quality, and affordability for over 25 years. The program leverages cutting-edge building science research to develop the solutions and best practices needed to advance energy efficiency in homes.Multi-disciplinary teams will bring together expertise in community engagement, retrofit demonstration, research, implementation, and industry to address the hard-to-solve technical challenges of decarbonizing the existing U.S. residential housing stock. Teams will work with communities to conduct collaborative research and demonstration projects in real-world homes, with the aim of accelerating local deployment of highly energy efficient, durable, healthy home upgrades. This work will demonstrate equitable and scalable residential retrofit solutions and will produce guidance for broader implementation in communities across the

country.Through the formation of expert teams, and the development of community-focused projects, the challenges that are relevant to reducing the lifecycle carbon emissions of homes through retrofit projects will be studied. Technical challenges will be addressed through field validation and demonstration, measurement and verification, and through workforce training. Multi-project data will be analyzed to compare and validate proven solutions. Actionable guidance will be developed and disseminated to share technical best practices, implementation, commercialization, and workforce successes.NREL supports Building America through scientific leadership and building science expertise to ensure high-quality, impactful results from Building America’s research efforts. NREL is responsible for developing and managing the portfolio of field validation and demonstration projects conducted by multidisciplinary retrofit teams. NREL strengthens research quality and scientific integrity by providing technical expertise in scope development and experimental design.