MHI members have been busy working on various technology solutions to meet increased energy efficiency standards for manufactured homes that could be beneficial for HUD-Code manufacturers to meet anticipated new DOE energy efficiency standards for manufactured homes, and for modular builders to meet state energy efficiency codes utilizing less costly methods and designs.
Under the leadership of the Systems Building Research Alliance (SBRA), the Advanced Envelope Design committee comprised of manufactured and modular home builders and suppliers, is in the process of developing detailed designs for three high thermal performance envelope technologies – Structural Insulated Panels or SIPs for walls, stud wall with integrated insulating sheathing board, and flash and batt construction.
These technologies were selected for further study by the project committee. Selection was based on a preliminary assessment of thermal performance, manufacturability, cost and other design issues. The objective of this phase of the project is to develop and refine the design for each technology so that performance is optimized for factory built housing and significant issues related to concept viability can be identified. Results of the current research phase will allow manufacturers to compare and these technologies selecting those that best meet their future building needs.
Designs will be developed using a concurrent engineering approach and driven mainly by the needs and demands of the customer, the builder, the manufacturer and regulatory agencies. These include:
• Strong, safe, comfortable, durable structure
• Superior energy performance
• Affordable and cost efficient
• Easily producible providing significant design flexibility
The project committee expects to complete this Phase 2 of its work by October, 2011. The next step will be to develop full scale implementation and testing of each of the three options.
