The environmental impact of the zero energy ready home program on manufactured housing

Manufactured homes, which are built in the factory and shipped to the site, provide economical housing for more than 20 million Americans. To improve energy measures and facilitate deployment of renewable energy systems to achieve net zero energy in manufactured homes, the U.S. Department of Energy...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mengjia Tang, Kuma Sumathipala, Dylan J. Poku, Antonio J. Aldykiewicz Jr
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024-07-01
Series:Next Materials
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2949822824000911
_version_ 1827179621490098176
author Mengjia Tang
Kuma Sumathipala
Dylan J. Poku
Antonio J. Aldykiewicz Jr
author_facet Mengjia Tang
Kuma Sumathipala
Dylan J. Poku
Antonio J. Aldykiewicz Jr
author_sort Mengjia Tang
collection DOAJ
description Manufactured homes, which are built in the factory and shipped to the site, provide economical housing for more than 20 million Americans. To improve energy measures and facilitate deployment of renewable energy systems to achieve net zero energy in manufactured homes, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) made public the Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) National Program Requirements for manufactured housing in 2022. To understand how these changes will impact the environment and the building’s durability, life cycle assessment and hygrothermal simulations were carried out for a standard manufactured home design and two ZERH designs in Knoxville, Tennessee. The embodied carbon and operational emissions were compared for the standard design and two ZERH designs for a service life of 60 years. Operational emissions were determined using the Building Energy Optimization tool, BEopt, and durability assessment was carried out using WUFI Pro. Life cycle assessment was performed in accordance with ISO 14040 using Athena’s Impact Estimator for buildings. Results indicate that the investment in embodied carbon of the zero energy ready homes is small relative to the savings in operational emissions. The increase in embodied carbon in the zero energy ready homes is offset by the reduction in operational emissions compared to the standard home for the first year of operation. With an investment of 59 kg CO2 eq in embodied carbon, the reduction in operational emissions is approximately 680 kg CO2 eq after one year compared to a construction that meets the prescriptive performance of the building code for manufactured housing.
first_indexed 2024-04-24T11:37:19Z
format Article
id doaj.art-72db75dcc1bf45009a05e30b81c88bd8
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2949-8228
language English
last_indexed 2025-03-21T05:17:56Z
publishDate 2024-07-01
publisher Elsevier
record_format Article
series Next Materials
spelling doaj.art-72db75dcc1bf45009a05e30b81c88bd82024-07-26T04:11:45ZengElsevierNext Materials2949-82282024-07-014100194The environmental impact of the zero energy ready home program on manufactured housingMengjia Tang0Kuma Sumathipala1Dylan J. Poku2Antonio J. Aldykiewicz Jr3Buildings and Transportation Science Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USABuildings and Transportation Science Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USADepartment of Materials Science and Engineering, Rutgers University, NJ 08854, USABuildings and Transportation Science Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA; Corresponding author.Manufactured homes, which are built in the factory and shipped to the site, provide economical housing for more than 20 million Americans. To improve energy measures and facilitate deployment of renewable energy systems to achieve net zero energy in manufactured homes, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) made public the Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) National Program Requirements for manufactured housing in 2022. To understand how these changes will impact the environment and the building’s durability, life cycle assessment and hygrothermal simulations were carried out for a standard manufactured home design and two ZERH designs in Knoxville, Tennessee. The embodied carbon and operational emissions were compared for the standard design and two ZERH designs for a service life of 60 years. Operational emissions were determined using the Building Energy Optimization tool, BEopt, and durability assessment was carried out using WUFI Pro. Life cycle assessment was performed in accordance with ISO 14040 using Athena’s Impact Estimator for buildings. Results indicate that the investment in embodied carbon of the zero energy ready homes is small relative to the savings in operational emissions. The increase in embodied carbon in the zero energy ready homes is offset by the reduction in operational emissions compared to the standard home for the first year of operation. With an investment of 59 kg CO2 eq in embodied carbon, the reduction in operational emissions is approximately 680 kg CO2 eq after one year compared to a construction that meets the prescriptive performance of the building code for manufactured housing.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2949822824000911Life cycle assessmentGlobal warming potentialEmbodied carbonOperational emissions
spellingShingle Mengjia Tang
Kuma Sumathipala
Dylan J. Poku
Antonio J. Aldykiewicz Jr
The environmental impact of the zero energy ready home program on manufactured housing
Next Materials
Life cycle assessment
Global warming potential
Embodied carbon
Operational emissions
title The environmental impact of the zero energy ready home program on manufactured housing
title_full The environmental impact of the zero energy ready home program on manufactured housing
title_fullStr The environmental impact of the zero energy ready home program on manufactured housing
title_full_unstemmed The environmental impact of the zero energy ready home program on manufactured housing
title_short The environmental impact of the zero energy ready home program on manufactured housing
title_sort environmental impact of the zero energy ready home program on manufactured housing
topic Life cycle assessment
Global warming potential
Embodied carbon
Operational emissions
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2949822824000911
work_keys_str_mv AT mengjiatang theenvironmentalimpactofthezeroenergyreadyhomeprogramonmanufacturedhousing
AT kumasumathipala theenvironmentalimpactofthezeroenergyreadyhomeprogramonmanufacturedhousing
AT dylanjpoku theenvironmentalimpactofthezeroenergyreadyhomeprogramonmanufacturedhousing
AT antoniojaldykiewiczjr theenvironmentalimpactofthezeroenergyreadyhomeprogramonmanufacturedhousing
AT mengjiatang environmentalimpactofthezeroenergyreadyhomeprogramonmanufacturedhousing
AT kumasumathipala environmentalimpactofthezeroenergyreadyhomeprogramonmanufacturedhousing
AT dylanjpoku environmentalimpactofthezeroenergyreadyhomeprogramonmanufacturedhousing
AT antoniojaldykiewiczjr environmentalimpactofthezeroenergyreadyhomeprogramonmanufacturedhousing