Abstract
During the 2015-2016 fiscal year and with financial support from the Florida Building Commission (FBC) and the Florida Roofing and Sheet Metal Contractors Association (FRSA ), the University of Florida (UF) and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) completed Phase I of a study that setup four residential home demonstrations in Florida climate zones CZ-1A and CZ-2A. UF and ORNL are evaluating the hygrothermal (heat and moisture flow) performance and durability of sealed attic construction where expanded foam insulation is applied directly to the underside of the roof deck. The four homes are instrumented for measuring temperature and relative humidity of the indoor living space, the outdoor air and the attic air. In addition, the temperature, relative humidity and moisture content of the roof sheathing are being monitored and recorded by remotely-accessible data acquisition equipment. Air leakage tests on the whole house, on the sealed attic and in the HVAC ducts were conducted on all four homes.
