HB2009 Tour: BEST Lab
- BEST Lab tours: 1200 Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 14 and 15
- Sign up for tour at the SyracuseCoE Help Desk (limit 20 people)
Laboratory Details
The Building Envelope Systems Test (BEST) Laboratory is a unique SyracuseCoE research and development facility located on Syracuse University’s South Campus. The laboratory focuses on the performance of air barriers—systems that control unintended air movement between outdoors and indoors, which can have major impacts on a building’s energy use and indoor air quality. In heating climates, up to 40 percent of the energy use in a building can be attributed to air leakage.
This project is a three-year collaborative effort to evaluate technologies that improve the energy efficiency of homes and other buildings by weatherizing the building enclosure to control unintended air movement between outdoors and indoors. Project partners include the Air Barrier Association of America (ABAA), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), and the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems (SyracuseCoE).
The BEST Lab is a two-story structure that can accommodate up to 34 full-scale wall panels that are 4 feet wide and nine feet high. ABAA has installed panels that represent a variety of different materials and air barriers. ORNL instrumented the test panels and will analyze the results. Syracuse University faculty and students are collaborating in the project, including responsibilities for operating the facility. NYSERDA, ABAA, and SyracuseCoE provided funding toward a portion of design and construction expenses. The value of commitments by multiple partners to the three-year project is more than $2 million.
