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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 955 records · Page 53
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2018

Evaluation of the Energy-Efficiency of an Aerated Slurry-Infiltrated Mesh Building System with Biomass-Based Insulation

Experimental investigations and numerical analyses were conducted on the thermal attributes of a building system made with locally available structural and insulation materials. The structural material, which also offers some insulation qualities, is referred to as aerated slurry-infiltrated mesh. The insulation materials used in this building are based on biomass; the alternatives considered here include ground wood, shredded straw, and cellulose. Thermal conductivity tests were performed on aerated slurries of different bulk densities, and on the biomass-based insulation materials, some of which were prepared with different bulk densities. The competitive merits of the biomass-based indigenous insulation materials were assessed. The correlations between bulk density and thermal conductivity were evaluated and rationalized based on the prevalent mechanisms of heat transfer in different materials. The effects of temperature on the thermal conductivity of different biomass-based indigenous insulation materials were investigated. For wall insulation, a cost analysis was conducted in order to select the optimum insulation level. As a result, the thermal mass of the aerated slurry-infiltrated mesh building system was found to favor its energy-efficiency when compared with a similar wood building.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2015

Building America Case Study: Northwest Energy Efficient Manufactured Housing Program High-Performance Test Homes; Whole-House Solutions for New Homes, Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE)

?This project represents the third phase of a multi-year effort to develop and bring to market a High Performance Manufactured Home (HPMH). The scope of this project involved building four HPMH prototypes, resulting in what is expected to be a 30% savings relative to the Building America Benchmark. (The actual % savings varies depending on choice of heating equipment and climate zone). The HPMH home is intended to make significant progress toward performing as zero-net-energy ready. Previous phases of this project created a HPMH specification and prototyped individual measures from the package to obtain engineering approvals and develop preliminary factory construction processes. This report describes the project team's work during 2014 to build prototype homes to the HPMH specifications and to monitor the homes for energy performance and durability during 2014. Monitoring is expected to continue into 2016. home is intended to make significant progress toward performing as zero-net-energy ready. Previous phases of this project created a HPMH specification and prototyped individual measures from the package to obtain engineering approvals and develop preliminary factory construction processes. This report describes the project team's work during 2014 to build prototype homes to the HPMH specifications and to monitor the homes for energy performance and durability during 2014. Monitoring is expected to continue into 2016.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2018

Big Data Mining for Assessing Calibration of Building Energy Models

Residential and commercial buildings in China, India, the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK), and Italy consume 39-45% of each nation's primary energy. Building energy models can be used to automatically optimize the return-on-investment for retrofits to improve a building’s energy efficiency. However, with an average of 3,000 building descriptors necessary to accurately simulate a single building, there is a market need to reduce the transaction cost for creating a more robust model for simulating every building in a city and accurately estimate savings prior to capital expenditures.We used two of the world’s fastest supercomputers, assembled unique datasets, and developed innovative algorithms for big data mining to assess different methods to create an accurate building energy model. The team has leveraged a total of eight high performance computing resources and 218 servers to analyze the best methods, metrics, and algorithms for creating an accurate building energy model beyond current industry standards necessary for private-sector financing. The project developed the world’s fastest buildings simulator, has completed over 8 million simulations totaling over 300TB, and mined this data with over 130,000 parallel artificial intelligence algorithms. This was used to quantify accuracy of AI-developed calibration algorithms with results that surpass industry standard guidelines and can identify individual building parameters to between 15% and 32% of their actual value.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2012

Strengthening the Workforce in Better Buildings Neighborhoods

The Better Buildings Neighborhood Program is supporting an expanding energy efficiency workforce upgrading buildings in communities around the country. Contractors are being trained and have access to additional job opportunities, spurring local economic growth while helping Americans use less energy, save money, and be more comfortable in their homes and other buildings.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Big Data Mining for Applied Energy Savings in Buildings

Residential and commercial buildings in China, India, the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK), and Italy consume 39-45% of each nation's primary energy (approximately 73% of electricity). Building energy models can be used to automatically optimize the return-on-investment for retrofits to improve a building’s energy efficiency. However, with an average of 3,000 building descriptors necessary to accurately simulate a single building, there is a market need to reduce the transaction cost for creating a simulatable model for every building in a city and calibrate the models to utility data prior to capital expenditures. Oak Ridge National Laboratory has utilized two of the world’s fastest supercomputers, assembled unique datasets, and developed innovative algorithms for big data mining to produce the Automatic detection and creation of Building Energy Models (AutoBEM) technology for urban-scale energy modeling. The project developed the world’s most accurate method for determining building footprints from satellite imagery and the world’s fastest building energy model generator. The team has also leveraged a total of eight supercomputers to analyze the best methods, metrics, and algorithms for calibrating building models to measured data within 4% of hourly electricity use; well beyond current industry standards necessary for private-sector financing. The project developed the world’s fastest buildings simulator, over 8 million simulations totaling over 200TB, and mined this data with over 130,000 parallel artificial intelligence algorithmic instances to develop the world’s best calibration algorithm in terms of accuracy, runtime, and robustness.

New, Joshua↗
DOE OSTI2023

Community College Energy Code Training Program

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) funded a series of research and training programs under the Advanced Building Construction with Energy Efficient Technologies and Practices (ABC) initiative. The aim is to develop new training programs to support the development of a skilled workforce in the building energy efficiency industry. In response, the University of Illinois Smart Energy Design Assistance Center (SEDAC), in collaboration with State Energy Offices in Illinois, Hawaii, and Nevada, developed the Community College Energy Code Training Program. The program is designed to prepare a new generation of energy-literate professionals that understand energy efficiency and its relation to energy codes for new construction and existing buildings through: a) the development of a curriculum and innovative pedagogical materials, b) dissemination through a national network of state energy offices: c) outreach targeting Community College students and instructors.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2010

Cascade Reverse Osmosis Air Conditioning System: Cascade Reverse Osmosis and the Absorption Osmosis Cycle

BEETIT Project: Battelle is developing a new air conditioning system that uses a cascade reverse osmosis (RO)-based absorption cycle. Analyses show that this new cycle can be as much as 60% more efficient than vapor compression, which is used in 90% of air conditioners. Traditional vapor-compression systems use polluting liquids for a cooling effect. Absorption cycles use benign refrigerants such as water, which is absorbed in a salt solution and pumped as liquid—replacing compression of vapor. The refrigerant is subsequently separated from absorbing salt using heat for re-use in the cooling cycle. Battelle is replacing thermal separation of refrigerant with a more efficient reverse osmosis process. Research has shown that the cycle is possible, but further investment will be needed to reduce the number of cascade reverse osmosis stages and therefore cost.

ARPA-E↗
DOE OSTI2016

2020 Leadership Agenda for Existing Commercial and Multifamily Buildings

Leadership by state and local governments is critical to unlock national energy efficiency opportunities and deliver the benefits of efficiency to all Americans. But related to building energy efficiency, what will it mean to be a public sector leader over the next several years? What are the energy efficiency solutions that cities, counties, and states are implementing today that will make their communities more affordable, livable, healthy, and economically competitive? The SEE Action Network 2020 Leadership Agenda for Existing Commercial and Multifamily Buildings establishes a benchmark for state and local government leadership on improving the energy efficiency of buildings and seeks two-way collaboration among state, local, and federal officials. It defines a suite of innovative, yet practical policies and programs for policymakers to consider implementing by 2020, focusing on six important areas.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Radiative cooling and thermoregulation in the earth’s glow

Efficient passive radiative cooling of buildings requires an unimpeded view of the sky. However, vertical facades of buildings mostly see terrestrial features that become broadband-radiative heat sources in the summer and heat sinks in the winter. The resulting summertime terrestrial heat gain by buildings negates or overwhelms their narrowband longwave infrared (LWIR) radiative cooling to space, while the wintertime terrestrial heat loss causes overcooling. We show that selective LWIR emitters on vertical building facades can exploit the differential transmittance of the atmosphere toward the sky and between terrestrial objects to achieve higher summertime cooling and wintertime heating than conventionally used broadband emitters. The impact of this novel and passive thermoregulation is comparable to that of painting dark roofs white and is achievable with both novel and commonplace materials. Our findings represent new and remarkable opportunities for materials design and untapped thermoregulation of entities ranging from buildings to human bodies.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2018

A Toolbox Necessity: Finding Best Practices in High-Performance Homes with the Building America Solution Center

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America Solution Center is a free, easy-to-access web tool containing the latest building science research from the Building America program. This paper describes how the Solution Center is bringing best practices for high-performance homes to members of the building industry to help their businesses to gain an edge to help expand their markets. It includes a tour of the Solution Center’s newest features and updates. The Building America Solution Center provides full and simple access to a wealth of best practices based on building science and energy efficiency research generated by the Building America program, along with other resources to help builders specify features, train crews, complete quality installations, and sell houses. This paper supports the visual presentation with the same title. The paper will be submitted for inclusion in the ACEEE Summer Study 2018 proceedings. The poster will be presented at the ACEEE 2018 Summer Study conference.

.S. Department of Energy Building Technologies Pro↗
DOE OSTI2010

Multi-Year Program Plan - Building Regulatory Programs

This document presents DOE’s multi-year plan for the three components of the Buildings Regulatory Program: Appliance and Equipment Efficiency Standards, ENERGY STAR, and the Building Energy Codes Program. This document summarizes the history of these programs, the mission and goals of the programs, pertinent statutory requirements, and DOE’s 5-year plan for moving forward.

Appliance and Equipment Efficiency Standards↗
DOE OSTI2014

Monitoring and Characterization of Miscellaneous Electrical Loads in a Large Retail Environment

Buildings account for 40% of primary energy consumption in the United States (residential 22%; commercial 18%). Most (70% residential and 79% commercial) is used as electricity. Thus, almost 30% of U.S. primary energy is used to provide electricity to buildings. Plug loads play an increasingly critical role in reducing energy use in new buildings (because of their increased efficiency requirements), and in existing buildings (as a significant energy savings opportunity). If all installed commercial building miscellaneous electrical loads (CMELs) were replaced with energy-efficient equipment, a potential annual energy saving of 175 TWh, or 35% of the 504 TWh annual energy use devoted to MELs, could be achieved. This energy saving is equivalent to the annual energy production of 14 average-sized nuclear power plants. To meet DOE's long-term goals of reducing commercial building energy use and carbon emissions, the energy efficiency community must better understand the components and drivers of CMEL energy use, and develop effective reduction strategies. These goals can be facilitated through improved data collection and monitoring methodologies, and evaluation of CMELs energy-saving techniques.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2023

Convergence Rate of Model Reference Adaptive Control with Application to Building HVAC Systems

Model reference adaptive control (MRAC) has been studied for decades and successfully applied in multiple areas, including heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems for buildings. MRAC is efficient in capturing the time-varying characteristics of buildings' indoor temperatures and outdoor weather environments. In this paper, the rate of convergence of MRAC is investigated, where a direct adaptive control with temperature set point reference tracking is used to regulate the indoor temperatures for buildings. Numerical results show that by controlling the HVAC systems of residential buildings using MRAC, the indoor temperatures converge Q-sublinearly to the desired temperature set points. In addition, the rate of convergence for MRAC is compared with a baseline adaptive model-free control method.

Wu, Tumin↗
DOE OSTI2021

The Demand-Side Opportunity: The Roles of Distributed Solar and Building Energy Systems in a Decarbonized Grid

Building energy systems represent a significant and largely untapped demand-side grid resource. Buildings use about 75% of electricity in the United States, including around 80% of peak demand, meaning that changes in building energy use have significant implications for grid operations. Building energy technologies-including energy-efficient devices, flexible loads, and energy storage-can be coordinated and aggregated to perform similar functions as centralized grid assets. Recent advances in information and communication (ICT) technologies have significantly improved building energy technology automation, coordination, and aggregation capabilities. With declining costs and technological advances, building energy systems can increasingly compete with conventional grid assets such as natural gas plants. Building energy technologies enable the deployment of distributed solar photovoltaics (DPV). Energy-efficient buildings allow DPV to meet greater shares of building load while flexible loads and energy storage can reshape building load profiles to optimize the on-site use of DPV. Optimized on-site use of DPV increases the value proposition for DPV adoption and can help utilities cost-effectively integrate higher levels of DPV penetration. Together, DPV and building energy technologies could help grids achieve deep decarbonization more quickly and cost-effectively.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2010

Lifecycle Assessment of Beijing-Area Building Energy Use and Emissions: Summary Findings and Policy Applications

Buildings are at the locus of three trends driving China's increased energy use and emissions: urbanization, growing personal consumption, and surging heavy industrial production. Migration to cities and urban growth create demand for new building construction. Higher levels of per-capita income and consumption drive building operational energy use with demand for higher intensity lighting, thermal comfort, and plug-load power. Demand for new buildings, infrastructure, and electricity requires heavy industrial production. In order to quantify the implications of China's ongoing urbanization, rising personal consumption, and booming heavy industrial sector, this study presents a lifecycle assessment (LCA) of the energy use and carbon emissions related to residential and commercial buildings. The purpose of the LCA model is to quantify the impact of a given building and identify policy linkages to mitigate energy demand and emissions growth related to China's new building construction. As efficiency has become a higher priority with growing energy demand, policy and academic attention to buildings has focused primarily on operational energy use. Existing studies estimate that building operational energy consumption accounts for approximately 25% of total primary energy use in China. However, buildings also require energy for mining, extracting, processing, manufacturing, and transporting materials, as well as energy for construction, maintenance, and decommissioning. Building and supporting infrastructure construction is a major driver of industry consumption--in 2008 industry accounted for 72% of total Chinese energy use. The magnitude of new building construction is large in China--in 2007, for example, total built floor area reached 58 billion square meters. During the construction boom in 2007 and 2008, more than two billion m{sup 2} of building space were added annually; China's recent construction is estimated to account for half of global construction. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) developed an integrated LCA model to capture the energy and emissions implications of all aspects of new buildings from material mining through construction, operations, and decommissioning. Over the following four sections, this report describes related existing research, the LBNL building LCA model structure and results, policy linkages of this lifecycle assessment, and conclusions and recommendations for follow-on work. The LBNL model is a first-order approach to gathering local data and applying lifecycle assessment to buildings in the Beijing area--it represents one effort among a range of established, predominantly American and European, LCA models. This report identifies the benefits, limitations, and policy applications of lifecycle assessment modeling for quantifying the energy and emissions impacts of specific residential and commercial buildings.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Improving the accuracy of energy baseline models for commercial buildings with occupancy data

More than 80% of energy is consumed during operation phase of a building's life cycle, so energy efficiency retrofit for existing buildings is considered a promising way to reduce energy use in buildings. The investment strategies of retrofit depend on the ability to quantify energy savings by “measurement and verification” (M&V), which compares actual energy consumption to how much energy would have been used without retrofit (called the “baseline” of energy use). Although numerous models exist for predicting baseline of energy use, a critical limitation is that occupancy has not been included as a variable. However, occupancy rate is essential for energy consumption and was emphasized by previous studies. This study develops a new baseline model which is built upon the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) model but includes the use of building occupancy data. The study also proposes metrics to quantify the accuracy of prediction and the impacts of variables. However, the results show that including occupancy data does not significantly improve the accuracy of the baseline model, especially for HVAC load. The reasons are discussed further. In addition, sensitivity analysis is conducted to show the influence of parameters in baseline models. To conclude, the results from this study can help us understand the influence of occupancy on energy use, improve energy baseline prediction by including the occupancy factor, reduce risks of M&V and facilitate investment strategies of energy efficiency retrofit.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Can We Practically Bring Physics-based Modeling Into Operational Analytics Tools?

We present that analytics software is increasingly used to improve and maintain operational efficiency in commercial buildings. Energy managers, owners, and operators are using a diversity of commercial offerings often referred to as Energy Information Systems, Fault Detection and Diagnostic (FDD) systems, or more broadly Energy Management and Information Systems, to cost-effectively enable savings on the order of ten to twenty percent. Most of these systems use data from meters and sensors, with rule-based and/or data-driven models to characterize system and building behavior. In contrast, physics-based modeling uses first-principles and engineering models (e.g., efficiency curves) to characterize system and building behavior. Historically, these physics-based approaches have been used in the design phase of the building life cycle or in retrofit analyses. Researchers have begun exploring the benefits of integrating physics-based models with operational data analytics tools, bridging the gap between design and operations. In this paper, we detail the development and operator use of a software tool that uses hybrid data-driven and physics-based approaches to cooling plant FDD and optimization. Specifically, we describe the system architecture, models, and FDD and optimization algorithms; advantages and disadvantages with respect to purely data-driven approaches; and practical implications for scaling and replicating these techniques. Finally, we conclude with an evaluation of the future potential for such tools and future research opportunities.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗