Weis Market Test
Weis Market Test
Weis Market Test
Project Overview
Project
ZERH Single-Family Homes
Location
Nationwide
Builder
Beazer Homes
Goal
Achieve 1.5 ACH50 air leakage on several thousand single family homes annually across multiple region
Before Aeroseal
3-4 ACH50
After Aeroseal
1.5 ACH50
Results
Aerobarrier is critical to Beazer Homes achieving ZERH certification reliably, consistently, and at production scale.
Type: Single Family
Production Homebuilder Achieves Zero Energy Ready Homes
Planning & Analysis Sets the Stage for Success
Beazer Homes is the first national builder to commit to achieving the US Department of Energy's Zero Energy Ready Home™ (ZERH) certification on every home they build and will achieve this by the end of 2025. They chose Aerobarrier as a critical solution to help them achieve the level of airtightness needed for the ZERH building envelope.
Building serveral thousand homes a year across 16 metropolitan areas to be ZERH certified is a very complex undertaking. Beazer Homes completed careful planning and analysis to determine how they could consistently achieve this level of performance. They considered every option and focused on what work swell for a production builder - what is repeatable.
"We set the goal of reducing our homes' energy use by about half to achieve ZERH", said Jim Moore, SVP of Operations. This also reduces the amount of PV solar to be added in the future to achieve net zero energy. Since air leaks account for 25-40% of home's heating and cooling energy use , Beazer had to solve air leakage to achieve ZERH and set the goal of consistently achieving a very low level of air leakage - at least 1.5 ACH50.
Weis turned to Sona Energy Solutions for suggestions on new energy conservation measures that would meet their energy and budgetary needs while minimizing business disruption and implementation costs. The store selected Aeroseal, a technology that targets leaks by automatically seeking out and sealing them, for their purposes.
Aeroseal was able to work with the existing system without interruption or delay of store operations. The immediate results were increased airflow efficiency, which led to a decreased fan speed in addition to reduced electricity use (kWh) and fuel consumption. This efficiency gain meant that conditioned air was going where it was supposed to, which lowered humidity levels on the sales floor to enable savings and reduce food waste.
Results
As described by Dan Cohen, Principal of Sona Energy Solutions, “With Weis having one of the most forward-thinking energy teams of our big box grocer customers, they understood the value of Aeroseal. Together we were able to achieve big energy savings, and more importantly for our customers, Weis was able to implement this ECM that they didn’t know existed with existing HVAC equipment and, more importantly, without disrupting store operations.”
After finishing the job, the leakage reduction was discovered to be 20.5% with an energy cost reduction of $5,000 yearly. Weis cut their maintenance costs while restoring the air quality of the indoor environment to ensure a safe and comfortable shopping experience for everyone. Because of its success, Weis plans to implement Aeroseal’s advanced duct sealing solution in several additional stores in the near future.