Affordable Housing Research
Read case studies, technical reports, and more about Building America's advances in creating affordable, efficient homes.
Building America sponsors research and development of design and construction techniques that meet the need for energy efficient, affordable housing for low-income households. By applying the systems engineering approach to improve building efficiency, the Building America Research Teams help to create cost-effective, affordable, and comfortable homes for income-eligible residents.
The technical assistance that the Building America teams provide to Habitat for Humanity and other affordable housing organizations focuses on:
- Designing energy-efficient housing that can be easily and affordably replicated
- Using volunteer-friendly construction techniques
- Applying the most cost-effective building efficiency strategies
- Developing Energy Demonstration Homes to test energy-efficient technologies and practices.
These projects address new housing construction and retrofit of existing single and multifamily homes, including zero energy homes that produce as much energy as they consume.
Energy Demonstration Homes
Through the design and construction of Energy Demonstration Homes such as the one shown here, Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver has improved the energy performance of every home they build.
Building America and Habitat for Humanity collaborated on a project in Denver, Colorado, that demonstrates how the systems engineering approach can be applied to affordable housing design. In this project, Habitat worked with researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to develop a series of Energy Demonstration Homes. These prototype homes tested a wide range of energy-efficient building techniques and technologies using Building America's systems engineering design approach. Habitat used this experience to assess and select features which could be easily and affordably replicated throughout all the homes that they build, expanding the energy and cost savings even further. Read Habitat Metro Denver—Perfecting Award-Winning Affordable Homes Using Building America's Integrated Design Approach (PDF 539 KB) to learn more. Download Adobe Reader.