Challenges and Opportunities To Achieve 50% Energy Savings in Homes: National Laboratory White Papers

In 2010, researchers from four of the national laboratories involved in residential research (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) were asked to prepare papers focusing on the key longer term research challenges, market barriers, and technology gaps that must be addressed to achievethe longer term 50% saving goal for Building America to ensure coordination with the Building America industry teams who are focusing their research on systems to achieve the near-term 30% savings goal. Although new construction was included, the focus of the effort was on deep energy retrofits of existing homes. This report summarizes the key opportunities, gaps, and barriers identified in thenational laboratory white papers.