Advanced Energy-efficient and Fire-resistive Envelope Systems Utilizing Vacuum Insulation for Manufactured Homes
Institute of Gas Technology dba GTI Energy
Recipient
Davis, CA
Recipient Location
37th
Senate District
68th
Assembly District
$552,060
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
In 2024, this project was placed on hold due to a loss of demonstration sites. The project team worked to identify new project sites to serve as demonstrations of the three affordable, energy-efficient, fire-resistive, all-electric manufactured prototype homes with advanced vacuum insulation panel (VIP) envelope features. The CEC released the project hold in February 2026. The project team has resumed work on the project with the initial task of finalizing the designs of the three prototype manufactured homes.
The Issue
The thermal performance of the building envelope of manufactured homes is governed by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) construction and safety standards. This is an antiquated standard that dates back to 1994. Depending on the climate zone, a manufactured home built to HUD standards might only require R11 wall insulation and R19 in the ceiling. In comparison, the 2019 California Building Energy Efficiency Standards (Title 24, Part 6) requires about R20 for the majority of climate zones and a minimum of R30+ for vented or unvented attics using fiberglass batt. Thus, manufactured homes installed in California are less efficient than homes built to California’s Building Energy Efficiency Standards.
Project Innovation
This project incorporates cost-effective energy-efficiency measures, such as upgraded envelope insulation and air sealing, which can dramatically reduce the energy consumption of manufactured homes. Further, high-performance window and HVAC technologies will be evaluated for further reducing the energy consumption of the prototype manufactured homes.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
This agreement will result in the ratepayer benefits of reduced electricity consumption and energy costs, as well as increased fire resistance. This agreement will lead to technological advancement and breakthroughs to overcome barriers to the achievement of the State of California’s statutory energy goals by: 1) enabling integration of VIPs into envelope systems for mobile homes. VIPs are proven technologies in terms of thermal performance, but so far have seen limited adoption in buildings. The integration of VIPs into the mobile home envelope and performance verification are the key research tasks within this project; 2) demonstration of the feasibility of drastically reducing the energy consumption of mobile homes through the envelope upgrades; and 3) demonstration of increased fire resistance through the use of VIPs and fire-resistant design of mobile homes.
Affordability
The projected cost of VIPs at mass production is in the same range as foam insulations (especially on a $/ft2/R-value basis). The VIP-based envelope systems developed in this project utilizes advanced air sealing technologies. This improves the air tightness and moisture durability of manufactured homes and reduces the air infiltration.
Reliability
Improved energy resilience via high-efficiency envelope systems that reduce the impact of ambient conditions on indoor comfort.
Key Project Members
Kaushik Biswas
Subrecipients
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Frontier Energy, Inc.
Dvele, Inc.
Intertek Testing Services NA Inc.
Match Partners
Institute of Gas Technology dba GTI Energy
Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas)
Utilization Technology Development
Dvele, Inc.
Microtherm
Huber Technology, Inc.
