An evaluation of Virginia's low-income weatherisation programme was conducted in order to develop a set of recommendations for improving the programme's effectiveness. Provides a short overview of the first two steps of the evaluation - an assessment of measured savings being achieved by the existing weatherisation programme and engineering/economic analyses of alternative energy conservation measures and techniques to identify those most applicable to Virginia's housing stock and climate. Focuses on the heart of the project - the use of short-term monitoring to examine the energy savings and cost-effectiveness of new retrofit measures installed in a 60-house pilot study. Measures examined in the pilot study included high-density wall insulation, advanced air-sealing techniques, heating system safety inspections, and furnace cleaning and tuning. While the small size in the pilot study did not allow for evaluation of savings due to individual measures, the overall package of new measures substantially improved the cost-effectiveness of Virginia's weatherisation. New standards based on this work are presently being incorporated into the statewide weatherisation programme. This work is of particular significance in that it is one of the first comprehensive evaluations of weatherisation done in a mild-climate state.

KEYWORDS: monitoring, energy conservation, housing, energy consumption, USA, thermal insulation, calculating, costs, economics, standards, modernising, insulated housing, temperate regions