SWBE013-01 Residential Efficient Doors Measure

[Justin-DeBlois]

SWBE013-01 Residential Efficient Doors Measure

Energy modeling: Mostafa Tahmasebi @mosths Postprocessing: Debrudra Mitra @Debrudra20

Measure summary: This measure is for door replacement including low r-value doors and door sealing. The root files were changed to add infiltration reduction parameter to residential root.pxt files to reduce infiltration ACH in living spaces with external doors. Existing parameters were used to adjust door r-values.

Measure list: DEER_EnergyPlus_Modelkit_Measure_list_working.xlsx

Energy Consumption: meas_impacts_2022_res.csv

PR Author

• [x ] Make sure the PR branch is up to date with main branch at the time of the PR submission
• [x ] Craft a succinct title that effectively encapsulates the essence of the pull request, providing a general overview of the proposed changes.
• [x ] Label the PR with at least one of the following: New Measure, Bug, or Feature.
• [x ] Provide a concise description of the measure, bug, or feature. Submit one PR per measure.
• [x ] For a new measure, attach a workbook named DEER_EnergyPlus_Modelkit_Measure_list_working.xlsx, containing only rows used for post-processing the measure.
• [x ] Add comments in the code when necessary to facilitate the review process.
• [x ] Add a comment before the added code, including the author's full name, company, and specifying if it's a bug fix, new measure, or feature.
• [x ] For a new feature or bug, demonstrate the impact on energy consumption for selected cases with justification using plots and descriptions.
• [x ] For a new measure, add a summary table showing total energy consumption per simulated case.

  PR Reviewer

• [ ] Conduct a thorough code review.
• [ ] If the branch is behind the main, merge the branch locally to check for potential conflicts.
• [ ] If a bug, locally reproduce it and compare energy consumptions before and after.
• [ ] Explore creative ways to stress-test the code.
• [ ] Locally check the error file and other outputs.

[amine-lazrak]

Please find below review provided by Jennifer McWilliams @JenMcW:

• Overall the methodology is good. However, I would like to see a more comprehensive air sealing measure package. Perhaps add additional offerings to this measure package. (see last bullet.)

• I would also like to see an option for blower-door test-verified air sealing reduction. Perhaps do several tiers: of CFM50 reduction achieved such as >250, >500, >1000, >1500. The baseline case would be more leaky than the default as discussed in the next bullet.

• The base case models are already very air-tight. For most climate zones they are at the minimum ventilation guideline from ASHRAE 62.2 of 0.35 ACH. (The infiltration values were adjusted during the calibration process.) The similar situation exists with duct leakage where the base case is tight ducts. Please follow a similar methodology to the duct sealing measures, make the base case more leaky to simulate the leaky door and use the model default (0.35 ACH for most climate zones) for the measure case.

• I reviewed the pull request for this measure today and saw that the thermal properties of the door are also improved. I agree with the efficient door case shown in the cases table below (in RSI or m^2-K/W) that equates to an IP R value [ft²·°F·h/Btu] between 5 and 6 if you are replacing the door. However, please provide documentation in the measure package text for the change to the Existing case from R of 1.8 (for a wood door) to your R-value of 0.69.

• Below is the image from 1993 ASHRAE Fundamentals chapter 23.15, Table 3 with ELA values for building components. The is the source of the values in the KEMA report that you reference. This table is old and has been removed from later versions of ASHRAE Fundamentals and should be used with caution. The KEMA report based their numbers on the Best Estimate column, but you can see from the Minimum and Maximum columns that there is a lot of variation in component leakage values. Retained in current versions of ASHRAE Fundamentals is the text describing Air Leakage of Building Components. Please note that in the section retained, Windows and Doors together have a component leakage of 6% to 22% with a mean value of 15%. The sum of door sweep and weather stripping in your measure package is 21.5% of the baseline leakage. The two measures together should have no more than 10% leakage. Please adjust the model inputs accordingly.