Michigan homes could benefit from a new initiative focusing on retrofitting existing structures using energy efficient insulation, equipment and other strategies to reduce energy consumption by up to 50 percent.
MSU’s School of Planning, Design & Construction and Institute for Public Policy and Social Research’s Office for Survey Research will join Dow Building and Construction, Habitat for Humanity International and Ferris State University on a multiyear initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, or DOE.
Buildings use more than 40 percent of the overall energy in the U.S., and there are about 80 million existing homes that could be retrofitted, said Tim Mrozowski, a professor in the School of Planning, Design & Construction and project coordinator.
“A major potential for the U.S. to save energy is to look at its existing building stock and make improvements,” Mrozowski said.
MSU’s role in the project will include technical research of energy saving solutions, said Greg Bergtold, director of Codes and Standards for Dow Building Solutions.
The Office for Survey Research will conduct market research on consumers’ motivation and ability to retrofit their homes.
“It’s one thing to do the research about efficiency, but you need to understand the consumers’ outlook on it,” Bergtold said.
The project is part of the DOE’s Building America program, which supports various research teams examining residential energy efficiency.
Homeowners can face a variety of energy issues depending on the age and style of the home, Mrozowski said.
“If we find a number of homes with a particular archetype, we can find strategies that are effective for them,” he said. “In East Lansing, we have a number of homes built in the late teens and early ’20s (of the 20th century), so the retrofit strategies would be very similar for those.”
The retrofitting initially would take place in Michigan, and then expand to Indiana and, potentially, Illinois and Ohio, Bergtold said.
The initiative currently is in the planning stage and does not have a set budget, said Matt Clark, national director of Construction Technologies for Habitat for Humanity.
Habitat for Humanity was chosen as a partner because it has access to the housing stock, Clark said.
“We can get cost data, existing energy data for the homeowners,” he said. “Once the work is done we can monitor how things are going.”
Homeowners face obstacles in budgeting and knowing what their houses need when it comes to energy efficiency, Mrozowski said.
Many elements, such as the home’s age and condition, make vary the costs of retrofitting This project should help gauge what can be done to increase their willingness to make changes.
“If we could get people to make these types of retrofits, it would have a significant impact,” Mrozowski said.
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