Building AMERICA U.S. Department of Energy

Measured and Simulated Cooling Performance Comparison; Insulated Concrete Form Verses Frame Construction

Four occupied homes near Dallas, Texas were monitored to compare cooling energy use.  Two homes were built with typical wood frame construction, the other two with insulated concrete form (ICF) construction.  Remote data loggers collected hourly readings of indoor and outdoor temperature, relatively humidity, furnace runtime fraction, total building electrical energy and HVAC energy use.  Data was recorded from January through August 2000.

Analysis of the measured data shows that insulated concrete form (ICF) construction can reduce seasonal cooling energy 17 -19% over frame construction in two-story homes in the North Texas climate.