Hathaway 'Solar Patriot' House: A Case Study in Efficiency and Renewable Energy

This report details the monitored and modeled performance of a solar home outside of Washington, D.C. We modeled the home energy performance using DOE2.2, performed numerous short-terms tests on the home and monitored its occupied performance for 29 months. The home uses modular construction, solar water heating, a ground-coupled heat pump, efficient appliances and compact fluorescent lighting toreduce its energy consumption by 35% compared to the Building America research benchmark home. The addition of 6kW of photovoltaics increases the savings to 67% compared to the Building America research benchmark. A more efficient shell to reduce space conditioning loads would have brought the home closer to its zero energy goals. However, even with efficient lighting and appliances, the lights,appliance and plug loads are a significant energy consumer. About 4 kW of PV are required to meet the needs of these loads alone. To achieve the zero energy goal with no further efficiency increases, the Hathaway house would need about 2.6 kW of PV in addition to the 6.0 kW it now has.