Proposals to amend Appendix A of Part 440 of Weatherization Assistance for Low-Income Persons are described. The proposals establish new specifications for the materials purchased for utilization in the weatherization of dwellings which qualify for assistance under Part 440. These proposed regulations prescribe the minimum requirements which must be met or exceeded by each type of material and the Federal standards to which they must conform. In addition, these regulations include installation requirements for each class of material installed at the request of the enduser. (MCW)

The KIPS Ground Demonstration System (GDS) was designed to simulate, as closely as possible, a Flight System Conceptual Design (FSCD). No radiator was incorporated and electric heat sources were used in place of isotope heat sources. To minimize air in-leakage and to simulate heat losses associated with space operation, the system was operated in a vacuum chamber. Initial testing was performed on the development system which did not incorporate a high performance turbine or non-condensing configuration of the cold liquid passages in certain regenerator vapor regions. After testing of the development system and retrofit to the GDS configuration, which included improvements in the above two items, the GDS was installed in the test chamber. Testing to date showed the GDS configuration has demonstrated a system efficiency of greater than 15%. Satisfactory heat balances have been calculated on most system components, permitting evaluation of component performance. Certain performance deficiencies currently exist which prevented the 18% efficiency goal being attained. These can be corrected with further development.