NJIT Research Partnership with BASF and United Way Taking Climate Action
Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America Program, Christine Liaukus at the Center for Building Knowledge is heading a research team of Hillier College students, experts from BASF, industry contractors and the United Way. The project is called “Re-Side Right” and it’s testing the performance benefit of installing a new insulation developed by BASF as part of a re-siding job. Neopor® Graphite polystyrene (GPS) is rigid foam insulation designed to improve the R-value of existing walls and when detailed as an air barrier, can also reduce air leakage through exterior walls. Early results are promising.
Every year more than 1 million homes in the US are re-sided according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard, and typically this is a standard residing process, often covering old shingles or wood with vinyl sheeting in a process that happens without being optimized for reducing air leakage and/or adding insulation. The result is that current practice is “locking in” energy inefficiencies. Compounding the problem is the fact that re-siding jobs typically occur only once every 25 years or so, resulting in 1 million plus houses a year with poor thermal energy performance that won’t be remedied for decades to come.
Infiltration is recognized as one of the biggest energy wasters in single-family homes. EPA studies have found that in a typical American house infiltration accounts for 25 to 40 percent of the heating and cooling loads. The Re-Side Right project team is testing and validating the incorporation of an air barrier and continuous thermal insulation into standard re-siding jobs to create a more durable, better performing building envelope. The expected benefits from this research are a 15%-20% reduction in infiltration and an increase in exterior wall R-value of 38% or more at reasonable incremental cost.
“This research has the potential to catalyze a paradigm shift in how energy upgrades are implemented in existing homes: instead of trying to “push” efficiency measures as stand-alone projects such as adding solar panels or more efficient heating systems that are undertaken for energy reasons alone, the Re-Side Right strategy layers energy efficiency upgrades onto home improvement projects that are happening anyway. With this approach,” Liaukus explains, “the incremental costs of the upgrades are less onerous – since the cost of the home improvement is being spent by homeowners anyway. The resulting reduction in energy consumption for heating and cooling and the carbon emissions produced taken over 1 million existing homes a year, extrapolated over the lifetime of the home, is immense.”
BASF is not new to developing energy efficient solutions for housing. In a pilot study at a 1930s housing complex in Germany, an external thermal insulation composite system (ETICS) comprising insulating material panels made of Neopor®, was used. Following long term upgrades to the housing and documentation, a case study was developed demonstrating the significant decrease in fuel oil consumption and C02 emissions for that housing complex. “BASF is committed to offering sustainable and durable products to homeowners,” said Eric Weisenbach, Residential Business Development, Neopor®, BASF North America. “The graphite in the Neopor® polymer matrix allows it to reflect and absorb radiant heat energy increasing the material’s resistance to heat flow. This will improve the energy efficiency in homes year after year.”
For the first house test in New Jersey, four students from Hillier College worked closely on site with the contractor team: “We had exposure to innovative environmental systems and standards, relevant to both our coursework and the future of building design. As students, we get a firsthand learning experience onsite, becoming familiar with typical building practices, building envelope, infiltration and ventilation and more,” said Marissa Gasbarro. “While collecting the pre-siding data on the first house, our fourth year architecture student was taught to run the blower door test,” said Liaukus.
“A blower door test is one of the first assessments made when figuring out just how airtight an existing building is. This is a crucial first step, as these results will later be compared to post re-siding measurements, when eventually a second blower door test will potentially validate suspected improvements to the air tightness of the building envelope and the infrared scan will show the improved insulation.” said Gasbarro. “Being the technician for the blower door test allows me to understand the purpose of our research and visually shows me how building envelope improvements can really change the dynamic of a house to be more sustainable.”
Re-Side Right also puts the work in the hands of the re-siding contractor because they are already dealing with the exterior of the home, and are uniquely positioned to provide the continuous exterior air sealing and insulation as it falls within the standard skill set of siding contractors. Re-Side Right will explore all these benefits and their potential to motivate contractors to venture beyond conventional approaches and to adopt “energy-enhanced” residing as part of standard practice. Part of that push is the development of communications materials to introduce the materials, techniques, and energy savings that will serve as incentives for customers as well.
“We have had a productive and ongoing relationship with BASF and are looking forward to developing this work through an expansion of industry partnerships and with the publication of training in the methods and applications of these products for contractors who re-side residential housing stock,” said Deane Evans, executive director of the Center for Building Knowledge. “Our long term goal is for Re-Side Right to become common practice for residential contractors and for the Center for Building Knowledge to continue expanding its “opportunistic retrofit” research and demonstration projects until every home improvement job can be turned into a cost-effective, climate-protective energy upgrade.”