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03b. PUSH Vacant Homes
The research group partnered with PUSH Buffalo in looking at six vacant homes, as they plan on retrofitting them to Passive House standards. Each home was visited, and the group split into teams for further research to assist PUSH in areas of Existing Conditions, Materials, Details, and Energy Modeling.
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For this portion of the research studio, I was in a group focused on Energy Modeling. I specifically focused on researching requirements (HVAC, R-values, U-Values, etc.) for NY Code, NY Stretch, and PHIUS standards for the Buffalo region. After this research, I used the program BEopt in order to simulate the energy modeling for each of the six vacant homes. The other two students in my group focused on THERM and Solar Panel Design / Utility Closet floor plans.
1013 West Ave
Orientation: West
Distance to left neighbor: 7’9”
First floor area: 1,337 sq ft
Second floor area: 1,202 sq ft
1013 West Ave has quite different sizes in square footage. The lower unit is larger by approximately 135 sq ft. Because of this, the lower unit will use more overall energy, but not by much. The building is west facing and there is no neighbor on the south side, meaning the south side will see maximum daylight and is much more prone to thermal transmission. This home will likely use more overall energy compared to the five other homes due to the southern exposure.
1013
Annual source energy use in lower apartment for NY Code: 99.9 MMBtu or 29277.79 kWh
Annual source energy use for PHIUS would be 84.8 MMBtu or 24852.42 kWh
Difference of 15.1 MMBtu, or 4425.37 kWh
PHIUS uses 60.93% less heating due to the higher R-values.
Annual utility bill in the lower apartment using NY Code : $1220 or $894 with PV credits
Annual utility bill using PHIUS : $1065 or $739 with PV credits
Annual source energy use in the upper apartment for NY Code: 99.8 MMBtu or 29248.48 kWh
Annual source energy use for PHIUS: 83.7 MMBtu or 24530.04 kWh
Difference of 16.1 MMBtu, or 4718.44 kWh
PHIUS uses 62.25% less heating due to the higher R-values.
Annual utility bill in the lower apartment using NY Code would be $1218 or $925 with PV credits
Annual utility bill using PHIUS would be $1054 or $761 with PV credits
