Healthy House

Affordable, Energy Efficient & Aesthetically Pleasing 

Imagine a home designed and constructed to not only have great 
air quality but to actually prevent excessive moisture resulting 
in mold and fungus proliferation, chemical out-gassing from 
various materials, poor ventilation and/or combustion problems, 
irritants such as pollen and dust mites. 

Tuskegee University, in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 
has done just that – created an affordable, energy efficient 
“Healthy House” that is built on Tuskegee's Experiment Station 
to conduct various energy efficiency and indoor air quality (IAQ) studies. 

Tuskegee University College of Engineering, Architecture 
and Physical Sciences’ “Healthy House” was built a year ago by 
student and faculty researchers interested in furthering the field of 
affordable, environmentally sound construction. Led by 
Associate Dean and Professor Dr.Heshmat A. Aglan, the team constructed 
the visually pleasing, affordable $30,000 home complete with front porch 
and decorative door using nonhazardous building materials, 
computer-monitored heating, cooling, air filtering systems. 
The home is even cleaned using environmentally safe cleaners. 
The home cost about $35,000 to construct.

The house’s thermal performance is being studied in winter, 
swing seasons and summer. This includes the effect of the 
unvented crawl space on energy consumption. The effect of 
ventilation flow rate on the energy consumption and indoor 
air quality is being studied. Issues related to relative humidity, 
in particular for the unvented crawl space, are being studied 
in comparison with the outdoor relative humidity. The IAQ as 
measured by CO2, VOC and dust particulates is being studied. 
Several publications have been generated, related to the thermal 
and IAQ of the Tuskegee Healthy House [9-10].