Building America Team: University of Minnesota – NorthernSTAR Building America Partnership
Partners: Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, Urban HomeWorks, Thrive Home Builders, City of Minneapolis, Building Knowledge, Inc., Huber Engineered Woods, and Cobalt Creed
This project focuses on the delivery of an optimized whole-house system, featuring an innovative moisture-managed wall panel system that can be integrated into affordable housing plans and adaptable to any climate. The primary objective is to validate this new technology and an innovative delivery system by partnering with two Twin Cities nonprofit affordable housing providers and a production builder in Denver, Colorado. The project will measure and compare performance, cost, and constructability of the technology and demonstrate market delivery within the current affordable housing industry.
An optimized whole-house system featuring innovative moisture-managed wall panel technology is being validated for performance, cost, and constructability in two affordable housing markets.
Completed work:
- Two house designs (Cedar 2.0 and Maple 2.0)
- Energy and moisture modeling for three walls
- Construction of wall comparison homes (Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity)
- Initial field validation process and procedures
- Installation of monitoring equipment in the three wall comparison houses.
Work in progress:
- Construction of remaining solid panel houses
- Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity (two houses in progress)
- Urban HomeWorks (two houses in progress)
- House design and engineering for Thrive Builders
- Cost and performance analysis.
Preliminary results:
- Crane time for erection is going down with subsequent builds
- Crews with limited carpentry skills are able to successfully erect these houses
- Field evidence suggests closed-in, secured, and weathertight is possible in a week
- Remarkable airtightness is built into the system (<0.5 ACH@50Pa)
- Easily meets Zero Energy Ready Homes program requirements
- There are more areas to improve cost competitiveness
- The code hurdles and customized engineering requirements have been a little larger than expected
- While the system is conducive to a single enclosure contractor, this requires a new contractor model with a predictable volume.
For more information, project presentations, and related publications, visit the Affordable, Solid Panel "Perfect Wall" (Building and Delivery) System web page.