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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 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Performance assessment of active insulation systems in residential buildings for energy savings and peak demand reduction

Active insulation systems (AISs) in buildings are envelopes that integrate thermal insulation, thermal energy storage, and controls. Although different designs for AISs have been proposed in the literature, a comprehensive analysis of feasible AISs is lacking. This paper discusses the energy performance, peak demand reduction potential, and performance characteristics of an AIS that uses a concrete wall as thermal mass sandwiched between two solid-state thermal switches (STSs). These STSs change their thermal conductivity using an on/off metal switch to create or break a thermal bridge across the STS. This paper first describes the experimental setup, used to determine the ratio of thermal resistance during R-high (low thermal conductivity) and R-low (high thermal conductivity) states of the STSs. This ratio was then used in whole-building energy simulations to evaluate the performance of AIS walls across different climate zones with/without a freeze timer of 60 min. The timer was added to reduce the number of switches of STSs from one state to another, and hence the energy needed for these switches. Analysis of the switching frequency and interval of STSs, thermal conductivity of walls, impact of wall orientation, and heat transfer through the wall from the use of AIS at different climate zones/locations were performed. The simulation results show that the AIS can achieve energy savings ranging from ~980 to 2,290 kWh in a single-family home with a floor area of ~220 m 2 compared with an IECC 2018 baseline. We found the energy savings was higher in dry climate zones which represent 17% of residential buildings in the United States, compared to humid or marine climate.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2024

Development and field demonstration of residential air source integrated heat pump using a three-stage compressor

To promote decarbonization and all electrification at residential sectors, it is necessary to use air source heat pumps (ASHPs) to replace natural gas for space heating and water heating. ASHPs are widely utilized for residential space cooling, heating, and water heating due to their simplicity and cost-effectiveness. However, their performance can be compromised in cold climates, where they may experience reduced heating capacity. A multi-functional heat pump, using a single compressor, to meet all home space conditioning and water heating demands, is an emerging technology. To address this limitation, we have developed and demonstrated an air source integrated heat pump to fulfill comprehensive home comfort requirements. This system employs a three-stage compressor and a single set of heat exchangers and valves, optimizing functionality while minimizing costs. The performance of the developed system was rigorously evaluated in both laboratory and field settings. In laboratory conditions, the system achieved a Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio of 17.0 (average COP of 4.98) and a Heating Seasonal Performance Factor of 11.0 (3.22). Additionally, in its most efficient operational mode—combining space cooling and water heating—the unit attained a total energy efficiency exceeding 7.0 seasonal COP in the field and could heat a 189-liter tank of water in just 25 min. The field study corroborated the laboratory findings, validating the system’s performance in real-world conditions. Here, this integrated heat pump represents an ideal solution for decarbonizing homes in northern climates by providing efficient space heating and water heating, thereby replacing the need for natural gas.

Integrated heat pump↗
DOE OSTI2023

Energy Savings With Acceptable Indoor Air Quality Through Improved Airflow Control in Residential Retrofits

The Partnership for Advanced Residential Retrofit (PARR) has been a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building America team since 2009, with a primary focus on upgrading the performance of existing buildings to reduce energy loads. In this project, PARR’s work explored the integration of airflow-focused measures in residential retrofit homes with the goal to maximize energy savings while ensuring acceptable indoor air quality (IAQ) using a systems approach to controlling four contributing air streams: • Building air leakage (natural, uncontrolled infiltration), • Forced-air distribution system static pressure and airflow rate, • Distribution system duct leakage, and • Mechanical ventilation. This project addressed airflows in houses, their combined impact on energy use and IAQ, and the comparative effects of typical insulation and air sealing practices versus integrated system-level retrofits. Additionally, practical considerations for contractors taking either approach were addressed. Finally, the effects of supply ventilation and exhaust ventilation on IAQ were compared in occupied homes.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2022

NCSU Industrial Assessment Center

Renewable energy technologies are becoming more attractive and gaining more attention as the world becomes increasingly aware of the negative impacts of global warming and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Two such emerging technologies are geothermal heat pumps (GHP) and solar thermal heating which can be used for heating and cooling of buildings. GHP systems are a well-studied technology that have been proven to be more efficient than traditional air-source heat pumps for space conditioning of buildings. Solar thermal heating has become more common as a way to heat domestic hot water (DHW) in homes, but the two technologies are not often combined. This study presents the findings of combining an open-loop GHP with 100 ft2 of flat plate solar thermal panels and a 5,655-gallon sensible water storage tank for space heating and DHW heating needs of a residential home in Bozeman, MT, USA. The goal of this system was to use energy from the solar panels and storage tank first to decrease pumping energy from the GHP well. The open loop system was designed to be a backup system to the solar thermal panels and sensible storage tank. An actual home was modeled to determine potential energy and cost savings of such a system compared to a traditional propane boiler. Then, a case study was performed on the installed system from January to June 2021. Results obtained from April 2nd to June 5th, 2021 indicated that the combination system supplied all necessary heat, and that heat was supplied from the thermal storage tank 55% of the time. This represents a savings of 330 kWh of energy and $36 compared to operating just the open loop geothermal system. From April 2nd to June 5th the combination system consumed a total of 2,510 kWh of energy and cost $274 to operate. Based on data obtained, there is significant potential for energy savings compared to a propane boiler, however only small potential for cost savings.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2022

A Peer-to-Peer Market-Based Control Strategy for a Smart Residential Community with Behind-the-Meter Distributed Energy Resources

This paper presents a distributed peer-to-peer market control strategy to manage and to enable resource sharing of behind-the-meter distributed energy resources in a residential community. In the proposed strategy, each consumer or prosumer determines the flexibility of their point of connection to the power network such that the obtained flexibility is network-feasible. Based on the feasible flexibility, the consumers and the prosumers trade power among each other at each time instance to fulfill their preferred load requirements while maximizing their payoffs and helping to regulate node voltages inside the community. Because the problem to be solved is non-convex, a distributed particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to coordinate the consumers/prosumers in a fully autonomous manner without any centralized or hierarchical coordination. Numerical simulations performed on a community of 48 homes demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach.

behind-the-meter↗
DOE OSTI2022

A Peer-to-Peer Market-Based Control Strategy for a Smart Residential Community with Behind-the-Meter Distributed Energy Resources: Preprint

This paper presents a distributed peer-to-peer market control strategy to manage and to enable resource sharing of behind-the-meter distributed energy resources in a residential community. In the proposed strategy, each consumer or prosumer determines the flexibility of their point of connection to the power network such that the obtained flexibility is network-feasible. Based on the feasible flexibility, the consumers and the prosumers trade power among each other at each time instance to fulfill their preferred load requirements while maximizing their payoffs and helping to regulate node voltages inside the community. Because the problem to be solved is non-convex, a distributed particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to coordinate the consumers/prosumers in a fully autonomous manner without any centralized or hierarchical coordination. Numerical simulations performed on a community of 48 homes demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach.

behind-the-meter↗
DOE OSTI2020

Impacts of Experimentally Obtained Harmonic Spectrums of Residential Appliances on Distribution Feeder: Preprint

This paper focuses on the harmonic load flow study for a set of residential loads and the impacts of the harmonic contents on the distribution feeder. Owing to the increased use of the power electronic based appliances and energy efficient home equipment like the lighting loads, the percentage of non-linear loads has increased in the distribution system which can impact the system performance, loss, and stability. Thus a comprehensive knowledge of their power quality and harmonic analysis is essential to improve the load models, voltage stability assessment, determining possible interactions at harmonic frequencies, protection planning, and the effect of the system impedance. For this study, the household appliances include the lighting, power electronics, resistive, and motor loads with a nominal supply voltage of 120 V single-phase or 240 V split-phase at a nominal frequency of 60 Hz. The harmonic spectrum as obtained from the experimental data is used to solve the harmonic load flow for a detailed secondary network including the distribution transformer extracted from a real distribution feeder's model. Additionally, the impact of the voltage harmonic on a three phase test load is presented through experimental results. The harmonic data of the transformer terminal voltage as obtained from the former load flow study is scaled to generate the source voltage for the three phase configuration of the grid simulator to make the test setup very similar to a real scenario.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
NASA NTRS1975

Application of solar energy; Proceedings of the First Southeastern Conference, Huntsville, Ala., March 24-26, 1975

Topics related to architectural and institutional considerations are discussed along with studies of components and subsystems. Subjects in the area of system design and analysis are also explored. Residential and commercial applications are considered, taking into account hot-water usage in a typical single-family residence, solar heating and cooling of mobile homes, aspects of design and performance in the case of a solar heating system using a reflective pyramid optical condenser, solar heating in a Boston school, a performance analysis of solar service hot water systems, comparative performance analyses of three solar heated and cooled buildings, and the use of solar energy in a soybeam processing operation. Applications related to power generation are also examined, giving attention to solar thermal electric power systems and photovoltaic research. Individual items are announced in this issue.

Wu, S. T.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Magnetotelluric Data from Mountain Home, ID

This dataset includes magnetotelluric transfer functions in the form of EDI files for 16 stations collected by the USGS and 40 stations collected by Quantec Geoscience for Lawerence Berkeley National Lab around the Mountain Home area in Idaho. A 3D electrical resistivity model is included that images resistive and conductive bodies in the subsurface that maybe important for geothermal characterization. The model was created using ModEM using the high performance computer Yeti at the USGS.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

An economic and technical feasibility analysis of a dual-source heat pump using both the air and the ground

The study investigates the economic and technical performance of a novel dual-source heat pump (DSHP) compared with that of air-source heat pumps (ASHPs) and ground-source heat pumps (GSHPs). The DSHP can use both ambient air and the ground as a heat source or heat sink. It uses ambient air when its temperature is favorable for efficient heat pump operation. When the ambient temperature is too hot or cold, the ground source is used to retain high-efficiency heat pump operation. Since the DSHP can alternately use either the ground heat exchanger (GHE) or ambient air to meet the thermal load, the required size of GHE can be smaller than those of GSHPs. This study models the DSHP using a whole building energy simulation tool (EnergyPlus) coupled with a Python plug-in and Heat Pump Design Model (HPDM) to simulate its heating and cooling performance for a typical single-family home in 15 US climate zones. The required GHE size of the DSHP system is determined through simulations and compared with that of GSHPs. DSHP deployment can reduce electricity use compared to ASHPs, especially in cold climates where it shows a reduction of around 50%. When compared to GSHPs, DSHPs use 20%–40% more electricity in warm climates but consume around the same amount in moderate and colder climates. Since the DSHP can use air source when the ambient temperature is mild, the GHE size needed for the DSHP is about 40% less than that needed for GSHPs in hot climates and about 25% less in cold climates. In conclusion, the life cycle cost analysis shows that the DSHP is economically more feasible than ASHPs in colder regions and economically more feasible than GSHPs in hot and cold regions.

Dual-source heat pumps↗
DOE OSTI2025

Updated Report for the Natural Gas Community of the Future

Nicor Gas is developing the Natural Gas Community of the Future (later renamed the Nicor Gas Smart Neighborhood (TM), a high-performance residential neighborhood consisting of 50 homes connected to electricity and natural gas services in suburban South Chicago , built as low-income affordable housing. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has been assisting Nicor Gas to explore a synergy among energy efficiency, renewable technologies, affordability, and resilience enabled by natural gas in this community. Our goal is to demonstrate how energy efficiency, distributed energy resources (DERs), and advanced controls, in combination with existing natural gas and electricity infrastructure, can help historically underserved communities in a cold climate reduce energy burden and improve resilience to extreme weather conditions.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Performance Results from DOE Cold Climate Heat Pump Challenge Field Validation

Space conditioning and water heating consume over 40% of the nation’s primary energy use and represent a significant component of many homeowners’ monthly energy bill. However, in cold climates, performance of heat pumps has traditionally suffered as the units have been unable to efficiently transfer heat from colder outdoor air temperatures to warm the interior space of homes. Optimizing heat pumps for cold climates (5 °F and below) requires coordinated effort to ensure heat pump technologies can be enjoyed by Americans living in these regions. The DOE Cold Climate Heat Pump (CCHP) Challenge sought to address this challenge by partnering with industry to develop, test, and validate the performance of new, highly efficient heat pumps in real homes. The Challenge, launched in 2021, brought together leading heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) manufacturers to develop prototype units optimized for performance at cold climates. This report summarizes results from the field validation that occurred 2022-2024.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

Effective Kitchen Ventilation for Healthy Zero Net Energy Homes with Natural Gas

Past studies indicate that kitchen ventilation that minimally complies with California’s Residential Building Code is inadequate at controlling combustion pollutants from natural gas burners and particulate matter produced during cooking. Effectiveness is further limited by misperceptions that kitchen ventilation is infrequently needed. This project developed the technical basis for updating kitchen ventilation requirements to protect health in new California homes, especially in smaller homes common among low-income renters. Tasks included (1) a field study of ventilation equipment performance and indoor air quality in 23 low-income apartments at four sites; (2) analysis of range hood use related to cooking time and household parameters using data from 54 houses and 17 low-income apartments; (3)a measurement-based study to quantify performance of over-the-range microwave ovens with integrated exhaust fans;and (4) pollutant exposure simulations to inform capture efficiency standards.The field study found operational deficiencies with mechanical ventilation systems in a substantial fraction of low-income apartments that affected performance, resulting in higher exposures to pollutants generated indoors. Using gas cooking burners produced high short-term and weekly time-averaged nitrogen dioxide in apartments.Range hoods were used more frequently with cooking in houses (36percent) than apartments (28percent); use increased with overall cooking frequency in a home and with duration of cooktop but not oven events; actual use was correlated to, but lower than,self-reported use;and use was more frequent in houses when cooking generated any fine particulate matter (PM2.5)or when high PM2.5resulted from cooking in apartments. Performance of over-the-range microwaves with integrated exhaust fans was similar to that of range hoods of comparable price. Simulation analysis found that performance standards need to be updated to ensure that kitchen exhaust ventilation adequately protects for substantial cooking in new California residences.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Sizing Small-Scale Renewable Energy Systems for the Navajo Nation and Rural Communities

The Navajo Nation consists of about 55,000 residential homes spread across 27,000 square miles of trust land in the Southwest region of the United States. The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) reports that approximately 15,000 homes on the reservation do not have electricity due to the high costs of connecting rural homes located miles from utility distribution lines. In order to get these rural homeowners access electricity, NTUA and other Native owned companies are examining small-scale renewable energy systems to provide power for necessary usage such as lighting and refrigeration. The goal of this study is to evaluate the current renewable deployment efforts and provide additional considerations for photovoltaic (PV) systems that will optimize performance and improve efficiency to reduce costs. There are three case studies presented in different locations on the Navajo Nation with varying solar resource and energy load requirements. For each location, an assessment is completed that includes environmental parameters of the site- specific landscape and a system performance analysis of an off-grid residential PV system. The technical process, repeated for each location, demonstrates how the variance and uniqueness of each household can impact the system requirements after optimizations are applied. Therefore, the household variabilities and difference in locations must be considered. The differing results of each case study suggests additional analysis is needed for designing small-scale PV systems that takes a home-land-family specific approach to allow for better efficiency and more flexibility for future solar innovations to be considered for overall cost reductions.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

A New State of the Art: Zero Energy Modular Multifamily Construction

In 2020, the U.S. Department of Energy's Building Technologies Office (BTO) launched the Advanced Building Construction (ABC) Initiative. This initiative aimed to integrate energy efficiency into high-production construction practices. One focus area of the initiative is off-site construction, an approach that may achieve scalable, efficient, and high-performing construction buildings through process standardization. This report presents the findings and recommendations from our ABC Initiative project: A New State of the Art: Zero-Energy Modular Multifamily Construction System. The objectives of the BTO-funded project are to: 1) Achieve energy performance 50% better than the 2018 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). 2) Achieve this level of energy performance at no additional cost VEIC worked with Louisiana State University (LSU), National Renewal Energy Lab (NREL), [the project team], and industry partners at the Mod Coach, KBS, and Solar Home Factory to identify and analyze multifamily business designs and modular construction practices. These designs and processes hold the promise of achieving the goals set out by the DOE.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
NASA NTRS1979

Residential solar-heating system-design package

Design package for modular solar heating system includes performance specifications, design data, installation guidelines, and other information that should be valuable to those interested in system (or similar systems) for projected installation. When installed in insulated "energy saver" home, system can supply large percentage of total energy needs of building.

Source record↗
DOE OSTI2023

Mechanical ventilation and indoor air quality in recently constructed U.S. homes in marine and cold-dry climates

Data were collected to characterize whole-house mechanical ventilation (WHMV) and indoor air quality (IAQ) in 55 homes in the Marine climate of Oregon and the Cold-Dry climate of Colorado in the U.S. Sixteen homes were monitored for two weeks, with and without WHMV operating. Ventilation airflows; airtightness; time-resolved CO 2 , PM2.5 and radon; and time-integrated NO 2 , NO X and formaldehyde were measured. Participants provided information about IAQ-impacting activities, perceptions and ventilation use. All homes had operational cooktop ventilation and bathroom exhaust. Thirty homes had equipment that could meet the ASHRAE 62.2–2010 standard with continuous or controlled runtime and 34 had some WHMV operating as found. Thirty-five of 46 participants with WHMV reported they did not know how to operate it, and only half of the systems were properly labeled. Two-week homes had lower formaldehyde, radon, CO 2 and NO (NO X -NO 2 ) when operated with WHMV, and had faster PM 2.5 decays following indoor emission events. Overall IAQ satisfaction was similar in Oregon and Colorado, but more Colorado participants (19% vs 3%) felt their IAQ could be improved and more reported dryness as a problem (58% vs. 14%). The collected data indicate that there are benefits of operating WHMV, even when continuous use may not be needed because outdoor pollutant concentrations are low and indoor sources do not present substantial challenges.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗