Work

Sustainability-Based Development of a Remote Technique to Assess the Effectiveness of Thermal Insulation in Households in West Virginia

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: As structures age, air leaks naturally form and can remain undetected for years, resulting in increased utility bills and, in severe cases, structural damage. The traditional method to determine if a structure has developed these leaks is through an energy audit, including blower door testing, which is costly and disturbs normal use of the building. A numerical approach to indicate the presence of air leaks, for instance, a simple mathematic formula requiring only simple building information available to any layman, would be of great value. Within this paper, a formula was developed for climate Zone 5 regions using multiple linear regression models to infer the presence of air leaks using only four input variables. To validate the model, this framework was applied to a series of 700–770 square foot (65.03–71.54 m2) apartment units in Morgantown, West Virginia, USA. The model was determined to be able to accurately estimate the energy consumption of a given unit within this size range with 20% accuracy, which can then be used to ascertain sub-optimal, and thus unsustainable, consumption of energy. This framework can be applied in additional climate zones to create a more robust and generally applicable formula.

Source: Sustainability

DOI: 10.3390/su17051845

Authors: Prateek Vaish, Ken Means, Bhaskaran Gopalakrishnan, Hailin Li, John James Recktenwald

Institution: West Virginia University

Language: English

Topic: Building Energy and Comfort Optimization

Subfield: Building and Construction

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Climate action

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,896