Senior Researcher Oak Ridge National Laboratory Fairfax Station, Virginia
New housing has made major strides in America. That's evident by observing the latest energy codes serve as baseline enclosure requirements for both ENERGY STAR Certified Home and Zero Energy Ready Home. Moreover, more than 300,000 homes were certified to these programs in 2024 with comprehensive building science control layers, quality-installed comfort systems and whole-house ventilation. But as they say, "existing homes are different" (whoever they are). The glacial progress with deep energy retrofits has been attributed to significantly greater challenges upgrading existing homes. Meanwhile, our ageing housing infrastructure is badly in need of upgrading with 85% of all existing homes constructed before 2000 when the energy codes were about 60% less rigorous than today. Oak Ridge National Laboratory has engaged an outstanding group of high-performance housing experts to identify optimized research investments for scaling deep energy retrofits. This session will present the project results and methodology along with related mutually reinforcing activities needed to ensure millions of existing homes undertake deep energy retrofits annually by 2035. The prize transforming the U.S. housing stock in terms of economic growth, increased tax revenue, energy security, grid security, wellness, and cleaner air are too big not to get this right.
Learning Objectives:
By attending this session, attendees will:
Learn why comprehensive high-performance innovations scaled in new homes but not existing homes.
Learn the basis for the hypothesis that "Leading Change is a science" with principles that ensure predictable outcomes and how applying these principles can enhance the success of any market transformation initiative.
Learn the highest impact and lowest risk research investments and critical mutually reinforcing activities for scaling deep energy retrofits.
