Energy efficiency in military housing: Monitoring to support revitalization guidebook

Oak Ridge National Laboratory is working with the US Army, the US Air Force, and the US Department of Energy to develop a guidebook to be used by architectural and engineering firms in the design phases of military family housing revitalization projects. The purpose of the guidebook is to ensure that energy efficiency is properly addressed in revitalization projects. Monitoring space-heating and cooling energy used in houses both before and after they are revitalized is necessary in order to assess the amount of energy saved by the revitalization process. Three different methods of conducting monitoring experiments are discussed, as well as the methods of data analysis to be used. Houses will be monitored individually using standard gas and electric meters to obtain heating and cooling data for the houses. The authors recommend conducting monitoring programs at Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma, and Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, because of their project schedules and potential for savings. They do not recommend doing any monitoring at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, because of the relatively small savings that they expect revitalization to accomplish there. They do not recommend seeking out alternative sites for monitoring because of the time required to become familiar with the installation and also because revitalization schedules at alternative sites may be no better than those at the sites they inspected