Compressor-based cooling in California houses (such as the typical central or window-box air conditioners) is becoming increasingly common as residential growth expands inland from the coast. Although Title 24 keeps overall energy consumption of residential designs within acceptable limits, houses designed and built to meet Title 24 do not alleviate the need for compressor air conditioning. They are designed to reduce the overall energy use of the house, but not necessarily to provide comfortable interiors during hot summer days.

This project has focused on the development of prototype houses which can provide interior comfort to occupants during the summer months in transitional climates with no compressive cooling or significantly reduced compressor sizes. The houses are designed to be attractive to the California residential building industry and their clients both in terms of design features and cost. The house features an advanced controls system in addition to envelope and design improvements achieved with current construction techniques.

The prototype compressorless house designs are part of a larger program to develop alternatives to compressor cooling for residential developments in California funded by the California Institute for Energy Efficiency and the California Energy Commission PIER Program. A multi-year project with an interdisciplinary research team, the ACC project began with detailed technical and market research, then moved into the design and performance tuning of a prototype house.

The previous work is available through project reports and conference papers. A Gold Nugget Award for the Best Summer Performance House is sponsored annually to bring the attention of the residential industry to these ideas and design concepts. We are anticipating a demonstration project in which the prototype or similar designs will be built and occupied. We invite all members of the California residential building industry to contact us for more information on using these prototype designs and how to build and market a compressorless house

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