• Sandspur Housing

Since 2002, FSEC staff have been working with Sandspur Housing, the largest affordable home builder in the nation. Sandspur constructs approximately 4,000 apartment units per year, primarily in Florida and Georgia. The company’s primary interest in Building America is in receiving assistance for designing low energy-use units with good indoor air quality and resolving recurrent moisture problems in Florida’s hot-humid climate. Contact with Sandspur was initiated by BAIHP subcontractor Florida H.E.R.O. in Gainesville, Florida.

Sandspur Housing staff were taken on a tour of the David Hoak demonstration home to show specific equipment and the role it plays in an overall systems engineering approach. After the tour, discussions continued on the Landing Community analysis. This allowed personnel to view firsthand some of the Building America principles and practices so that they could explain these concepts to others in the Sandspur organization.

BAIHP has worked with Sandspur in three Florida cities: Naples, Orlando, and Gainesville.

Naples, Florida

For Camden Cove, Sandspur’s community in Naples, BAIHP researchers conducted an energy analysis on all individual units and several apartment buildings slated for construction in 2003 and 2004. Information from Sandspur’s building plans was combined with Florida H.E.R.O.’s field experience in Sandspur's Gainesville apartment complex Harbor Cove Community. Results indicated an opportunity to cost-effectively reduce energy use/cost in a 16-unit apartment building by more than 20% while improving indoor air quality and durability. Since Sandspur was already building fairly tight duct systems, savings potential in this area was already being achieved. Additionally, heating and cooling loads in multi-dwelling buildings are lower than similar size and construction single family detached housing because there are fewer exterior surfaces.

Energy efficiency recommendations included:

• Switching to 75% fluorescent lighting
• Reducing duct leakage to the outside to 3% (Qn out ≤ 0.03)
• Reducing window area to 6% of floor area
• Window shading strategies to provide overall solar heat gain coefficient of 0.2
• Installing ducts inside the conditioned space
• SEER 13.0 cooling systems
• White metal roofing or radiant barrier
• Programmable thermostats
• Ceiling fans in all bedrooms and main living areas

Air quality improvement strategies focused on including:

• Pleated return air filters rated with an Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV) of 11
• Filtered mechanical ventilation of 7.5 CFM/person + 0.01 CFM/ft 2
• Supplemental dehumidification
• Quiet, energy efficient bathroom exhaust fans with timer switches (≤0.3 watts/ft 3)
• Quiet, energy efficient vented kitchen range hoods in each unit

A summary of all analysis results and building design features was prepared and submitted to Sandspur Housing. Two meetings were held to review the recommendations.

Orlando Moisture Investigations

FSEC staff tested four Sandspur-built apartment units and installed datalogging equipment in six units at the Landings Community in Orlando where some units had reported moisture problems. Measured envelope leakage was typical for new construction, and all but one unit had very tight duct systems. Dataloggers (stand alone temperature RH loggers) were deployed in the air handler of each unit to record interior moisture levels. Three weeks of data were plotted for six apartments as temperature, relative humidity, and dew point. Ambient weather data from the nearby Hoak house datalogger was included and compared favorably with published Orlando airport weather.

To continue investigating the cause of excess moisture in the apartment units, datalogging equipment was installed in six additional units. To remedy problems, prototype schemes were evaluated such as utilizing a humidistat in conjunction with thermostat, and installation of a dedicated dehumidifier. Data analysis will be completed in 2004.

Gainesville, Florida Brookside Apartment Complex

During the 5 th budget period, work was completed on testing and rating all 176 units in Sandspur’s Energy Star apartment complex Brookside in Gainesville, FL. Apartment features are given in Table 18. Each apartment was individually tested for envelope and duct air tightness as well as flow through the passive outdoor air system by Bob Abernethy, FSEC technician, in collaboration with Florida H.E.R.O. Results are listed in Table 18 below. The complex consists of one to four bedroom models grouped into two-story buildings of eight to 16 units.

• Southern Energy Homes

Figure 27 Southern Energy Homes quality control engineer conducts in-plant duct leakage test.

During the 1 st budget period, BAIHP held a meeting to introduce Building America to the industry. Representatives from Southern Energy Homes attended in hopes of finding solutions to moisture problems they were experiencing in coastal areas. In 2000, BAIHP researchers conducted building science diagnostics in several moisture damaged homes in coastal Louisiana and found contributing factors to be duct leakage and inadequate return air pathways
from bed rooms.

Southern Energy Homes took steps to achieve substantially leak free duct systems in all their homes. They switched from UL 181 approved tapes to mastic and fiberglass mesh for forming component connections in all their duct systems and began testing duct systems during production (Figure 27).

In 2002 FSEC received a request to certify the Southern Energy Homes (SEH) factory in Addison, Alabama for Energy Star compliance. A plant visit in August 2001 examined opportunities to enhance manufacturing productivity. Three model homes were tested for Energy Star certification, recommendations were made, and Energy Star plant certification paperwork submitted to US EPA.

In 2003 discussions continued with SEH plant personnel for conducting an analysis at one of their factories using the UCFIE simulation tool. On January 27 and 28, FSEC conducted site visits and performed diagnostic tests on several problem homes and submitted recommendations in a trip report in February. Based on these recommendations, FSEC conducted duct test training for factory personnel in four Southern Energy Homes factories.

In May of 2003 FSEC certified a Southern Energy Homes factory for EnergyStar production. FSEC conducted diagnostic field visits to Southern Energy homes in December 2003 and January of 2004 and provided recommendations in trip reports.

• Spain Construction

Florida H.E.R.O. worked with Spain Construction this reporting period to address a homeowner comfort complaint and to assist the builder’s mechanical contractor in designing a distribution system in a new Willowcraft community custom home. Diagnostic tests and Manual J calculations performed for the homeowner complaint determined that the mechanical system was oversized by one ton. In addition to the air handler filter, the researcher also located a second filter at the return grill. The homeowner was unaware of this filter, so its replacement significantly improved the system airflow. Florida HERO recommended the introduction of outside air to the return side of the system to facilitate positive pressurization and to slightly increase the load and diminish some of the effects of oversizing.

The builder has improved his specifications from standard code compliance (SEER 10, single pane windows, etc.) to HERS ratings of 87.5 - 89.4 for 100% of his homes. They feature SEER 13 air conditioning, double pane vinyl frame with low-E glass (SHGC of .34), air handler in conditioned space, R-30 ceiling and R-13 wall cellulose insulation. A few homes had ducts in conditioned space.

• Stylecrest Sales (Coleman HVAC Systems)

Stylecrest Sales, formerly called Coleman HVAC Systems, is a major provider of mechanical system components to the manufactured housing industry. IN helping various home manufacturers resolve duct leakage issues, BAIHP has worked extensively with the engineering staff at Stylecrest to resolve such problems as dimensional coordination of duct components, assembly procedures, and standards in duct joining recommendations.

BAIHP researchers also met with Stylecrest Sales to discuss Energy Star plant/home certification procedures and collected cost data for a variety of HVAC system sizes. In 2004, FSEC visited a moisture damaged home in Port Fouchon (LA) at the request of Stylecrest that was built by Southern Energy Homes using Stylecrest components. (See Section III, Research, Moisture Damaged Homes.)