Advanced Energy partners with NETL for second project

Advanced Energy is liaising again with NETL on a building project funded by the Department of Energy. Advanced Energy and marketplace partners such as product manufacturers, residential home builders, installation contractors and homeowners will share the costs of the project. Building partners will offer building sites and homeowner partners will allow the crawl spaces to be installed. Materials for the project will include insulation, vapor barriers, dehumidification mechanisms, drainage and air sealing products.

Advanced Energy is responsible for establishing and evaluating closed crawl space foundation construction in the production home builder marketplace within three different climate regions. Research and deployment activities, partner recruitment and data collection and analysis will also be performed by Advanced Energy.

The three construction sites will include 12 production homes with four being control-standard construction homes. The other eight will be closed crawl space construction homes. Of these eight crawl space construction homes, four will be with floor insulation and the other four with wall insulation. Between the three construction sites, a total of 36 houses will be utilized. The project will last approximately three years, with construction beginning in the late spring or early summer of 2006 and continuing through 2008. Upon final construction, all 36 homes will be monitored for a year to collect moisture and energy data.

Advanced Energy is currently working on identification and recruitment of project partners. Additionally, analysis and beta testing of various modeling software is being evaluated. The NETL II project manager will be Advanced Energy's Cyrus Dastur. He can be reached via email at cdastur@advancedenergy.org or by phone at (919) 857-9000. To find out more about the NETL II project, visit www.crawlspaces.org.