Research Tracker

Activities under this project will advance the development and market readiness of Vital Vio lighting products. These activities include characterization and optimization of Vital Vios current prototypes, full scale design concepts, LED module requirements including design and thermal analysis, LED module for incorporation into final fixture designs, various testing and certifications, and pilot implementations.

Lime Energy and partners will implement an energy efficiency service delivery model for small and medium size businesses in low-income communities, aiming to complete more than 1,000 retrofits featuring a performance guarantee and meter-validated savings. The results will create 60 jobs and generate $30 million in economic activity.

Arizona State University will develop efficient and stable white OLEDs that employ a single emissive material. This advancement in OLED technology could lead to building energy use reductions.

This project will research, develop, and demonstrate blue-emitting layers (blue-EML) capable of overcoming the existing device efficiency vs. device stability tradeoff in blue-emitting OLEDs, and enable next-generation stable white OLEDs (WOLEDs).

The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, will develop new strategies for increasing the lifetime of blue phosphorescent OLEDs (PHOLEDs). Longer-life PHOLEDs could provide notable energy and cost savings.

Glint Photonics will develop a stationary, roof-mounted concentrator daylighting system that uses internal optics to track the sun without external movement. This daylighting system will offset 40%-70% of the buildings electricity used for lighting and could potentially generate a total impact of 0.93 quads by 2030.

This data gathering and analysis project will develop reliable estimates of energy savings for Networked Lighting Controls (NLC) project and on a larger scale, accelerate the deployment and market adoption of NLC in Commercial Buildings. Advanced Lighting Controls has significant potential to accelerate LED lighting adoption. In a recent study by LBNL, multiple lighting control strategies saved an average of 38% of energy savings. However, market adoption on NLC/Advance Lighting Controls is estimated to be less then 1%. This project is designed to help BPA determine appropriate program designs, incentives, training and Qualified Products to increase deployment of NLC. The project will request data from several utilities including BPA about energy savings achieved in recent projects. BPA is partnering with Efficiency Forward (formerly DLC) to complete this project.

RTI International will develop and validate a reliability model and accelerated life testing methodologies to predict the lifetime of integrated solid-state lighting luminaires. By improving testing methods, this project will give additional product information to manufacturers and SSL users who seek to justify higher first cost for SSL products over less efficient lighting technologies.

The research goals of the project will to identify what types of systems would provide the best baseline data for the Pacific NW (PNW). Utilizing a new portable metering system that can measure temperatures, pressures, true power, heat load, and Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER) of Commercial Refrigeration, units will be installed at four different grocery stores. Sites will be selected that would be open to a large scale energy conservation project that modifies the refrigeration system. The portable Climacheck systems will remain in place a full year after the project to study the effect on the new system and quantify energy savings. After 1 year of post project data collection, the Climacheck systems may be moved around more frequently to collect shorter-term period (three, six, or nine month) data on additional sites and system types.

The University of California, Los Angeles, will develop components for the fabrication of OLEDs with improved energy efficiency and reduced manufacturing cost. This improved OLED technology could lead to lower-cost, more-efficient lighting options being available on the market.

This project will develop a technique to automatically construct new contextual information for sensing and control points based on point names and the raw time series value. This will allow for integration and connectivity from building analytics engines to commercial building management systems with minimal or no manual point mapping.

This project involved researching the feasibility of commercial "humidity sponges", which could help even out daily and multi-day fluctuations of relative humidity in building spaces. This proof of concept study investigated the wicking and water vapor transfer properties of several materials, in addition to the topology and material properties of the structures termites use to manage humidity in their colonies. The project completed with a market analysis, in order to better understand the marketplace for passive or transient building controls in the energy-efficient dehumidification market space.

This project will identify, quantify and evaluate the incremental costs and benefits of demand responsive (DR) lighting controls system requirements in the California Energy Code across existing, non-residential building stock. The project will focus on the incremental costs and benefits associated with adding the DR functionality to enhance general lighting upgrades in existing, non-residential buildings to enable them to act as DR resources.

This project will identify, quantify and evaluate the incremental costs and benefits of demand responsive (DR) lighting controls system requirements in the California Energy Code across existing, non-residential building stock. The project will focus on the incremental costs and benefits associated with adding the DR functionality to enhance general lighting upgrades in existing, non-residential buildings to enable them to act as DR resources.

This project researched new phase change materials (PCM) to store thermal energy for wall assemblies, and develop associated software tools. Heat is absorbed or released when the materials change from solid to liquid or vice versa. PCMs absorb thermal energy and they can reduce the need for heating and cooling in some buildings. Their impact is similar to that of adding thermal mass to the building. Unlike air conditioning systems, they require no maintenance. The use of PCMs and associated software tools can contribute to zero net energy commercial buildings by reducing the energy needs of a building through passive design.

The Recipient will develop Transactive Load management (TLM) signals, expressed in the form of proxy prices reflective of current and future grid conditions, and implement software to calculate such signals. These signals will be designed to provide customers sufficient information to optimize their energy costs by managing their demand in response to system needs. The signals will be transported via proven and available protocols and networks for use by projects that will test the efficacy of the TLM signals using the demand response projects awarded under agreement EPC-15-054.

Case Western Reserve University will design and demonstrate low-cost, compact, easy-to-deploy, maintenance-free sensors that will transform buildings into "smart" buildings. This technology has the potential to reduce building energy use, lower buildings' environmental impact, and increase building occupant comfort, all at a low cost.

The team will integrate the developed sensing medium into PARCs previously developed flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) peel-and-stick platform that measures humidity, temperature, light, strain, and gases such as carbon monoxide, methane, ammonia, and hydrogen sulfide at an anticipated cost of <$15/node at scale

Pennsylvania State University will develop a way to better understand and predict the occurrence of short circuits in OLED lighting panels, in order to reduce failure rates by means of new, more-informative panel diagnostics, a modeling capability to predict mean time to failure, and new anti-shorting strategies that address the root cause of the problem.

This project will develop an interoperable protocol that can be implemented in all plug-load devices, unhampered by proprietary restrictions which will implement energy reporting to enable plug-load devices to transmit operating information - such as identity, power consumption, and functional state - through a communications network to a central entity. After a communication infrastructure is established for plug-load devices, the data flow can be reversed to send control signals to individual devices. The central management system that this project will demonstrate is well positioned to provide comprehensive control over diverse plug-load devices.

This project will develop an interoperable protocol that can be implemented in all plug-load devices, unhampered by proprietary restrictions which will implement energy reporting to enable plug-load devices to transmit operating information - such as identity, power consumption, and functional state - through a communications network to a central entity. After a communication infrastructure is established for plug-load devices, the data flow can be reversed to send control signals to individual devices. The central management system that this project will demonstrate is well positioned to provide comprehensive control over diverse plug-load devices.

This project is working to develop and validate new low-cost, low-toxicity additives for A2L refrigerants to reduce flammability and lower global warming potential (GWP). This proposed refrigerant formulation would be more difficult to ignite, minimizing the probability and severity of any events and lessening existing safety concerns.

The University of California, Davis, will have undergraduate students work with industry partners to develop and validate a new solution to model rooftop air conditioners. This model could produce climate-specific advantages in comfort and efficiency.

This project is funding the planning, permitting, and preliminary engineering needed for the integration of advanced energy technologies in a disadvantaged community. The design will provide locally generated, GHG-free electricity from community solar and storage to offset electricity consumption of participants who opt in to the AEC. The design will also enable participants to benefit from savings resulting from various onsite Integrated Demand Side Management (IDSM) actions at no up-front cost, including energy efficiency retrofits, demand response, energy management systems, and an energy education and support program. Participants will pay back retrofit costs and cost of capital for solar and storage assets through an on-bill financing mechanism, including a first-of-its-kind virtual net metering (VNEM) tariff across multiple county-owned sites and residential buildings piloted by Los Angeles Community Choice Energy (LACCE). The project has a strong focus on local outreach and engagement to promote community participation in the AEC, as well as robust data evaluation methods facilitated through the LA County Energy Atlas to ensure design and financing features are optimized.

The Minnesota Center for Energy and Environment will research and validate energy and cost savings opportunities using power over Ethernet (PoE) infrastructure to power and automate lighting, plugs, and HVAC system controls.

The goal is to develop a minimally invasive retrofit insulation technology for enclosed roof cavities such as cathedral ceilings, flat roofs, and dormer roofs.

This project will work directly with leading production builders and product manufacturers to demonstrate and validate high efficiency, variable capacity, ducted and ductless space conditioning systems with optimized comfort distribution and latent control for low load homes in humid climates. The team will investigate potential for better RH control via variable compressor speed, refrigerant flow, and coil air flow. The guidance and best practices from this work will result in 5-10% space conditioning energy savings in current DOE Zero Energy Ready Homes while maintaining or enhancing comfort.

Steven Winter Associates will work with manufacturing partner Mitsubishi Electric to develop, test, and demonstrate an integrated energy recovery ventilation and heat pump system for residential buildings.

This project will develop low-cost, low power, accurate, calibration-free, and compact airflow sensors (anemometers) for measuring: (1) room airflow in occupied commercial buildings; and (2) volumetric air flow in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. The technology will save energy by using the collected data to correct current wasteful HVAC malfunctions that result in inefficient systems and uncomfortable buildings. The anemometers will be wireless, able to be inexpensively installed in existing buildings, and operate on a battery for years and communicate wirelessly via the internet to the building's control system. The device will also sense temperature, its orientation, and its location

This project will develop low-cost, low power, accurate, calibration-free, and compact airflow sensors (anemometers) for measuring: (1) room airflow in occupied commercial buildings; and (2) volumetric air flow in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. The technology will save energy by using the collected data to correct current wasteful HVAC malfunctions that result in inefficient systems and uncomfortable buildings. The anemometers will be wireless, able to be inexpensively installed in existing buildings, and operate on a battery for years and communicate wirelessly via the internet to the building's control system. The device will also sense temperature, its orientation, and its location

Drexel University will develop an innovative and cost-effective automated fault detection and diagnostics tool that better identifies issues related to building energy use. This project is expected to impact a total energy market of 7,306 TBTU, with projected national energy savings of 1,096 TBTU with a simple payback time per installation of less than 1 year.

This federal cost share project demonstrates the benefits of the VOLTTRON platform for DER management through the testing of the VOLTTRON Testing Tool Kit. VOLTTRON is a US Department of Energy funded open source platform intended to provide a software base for integrating management of energy demand in buildings, distributed energy resources, and the electrical grid. The tool kit expands the VOLTTRON platform beyond its original set of developers and encourages adoption by other organizations and private entities. By lowering implementation costs and adding additional features such as simulation test suites and debugging tools, the tool kit promotes wider use of the VOLTTRON platform.

SLAC is working with partners Kisensum and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to develop a VOLTTRON Testing Took kit that will enhance the VOLTTRON Open Source platform that is currently under development by adding testing tools. This makes VOLTTRON more accessible and available to small and medium facility owners by allowing for quick analysis of the potential of behind-the-meter storage, integration of renewables and responsiveness to the wholesale energy process.

BPA has not provided any variable refrigerant flow (VRF) system incentives because of challenges estimating and verifying energy savings. This project will leverage BPAs AirNW Trade Ally network to identify and document VRF installations so that billing analysis can be done to determine energy savings. Activities include: billing analyses on 10 sites where the VRF system installation was the only change affecting electricity use.

Ecotope, in partnership with Vulcan Real Estate and Seattle City Light proposes to design, pilot and verify a heat pump water heating system for large multifamily buildings using the building sewage as a heat source. The waste water heat pump (WWHP) will recover waste heat streams from the building and heat water for domestic use at extremely high performance levels. The system will be built in a large multifamily building with approximately 400 apartment units. The project team will conduct a feasibility study of the system concept and a numerical model to predict the best equipment sizing and control algorithms. With the feasibility demonstrated the team will move on to full system design in a multifamily building. The team will write a measurement plan to monitor the energy use of the system. The team will commission the system, optimize its operation and prepare a set of design guidelines to be used throughout the engineering community.

HI Cat will coordinate with Building America and Weatherization to advance access by home improvement trades to the array of technical resources from DOE.

This project leverages deep-retrofit work completed by NEEA, Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, and provides BPA with retrofit packages for our Maintenance Head Quarter and Heavy Mobile Equipment Shop buildings. The two retrofit packages are projected to achieve 35 and 50% energy savings through upgrades to the building envelope, lighting and HVAC systems while helping BPA meet Executive Order (EO) 13693 which calls for all new federal buildings to be net zero ready by 2030 and requires that existing buildings reduce building energy intensity by 2.5% annually through 2025 while promoting deep retrofit packages for similar buildings in the region through net zero energy building guidelines. Information from this research will be applied to new retrofit packages for other commercial buildings within the BPA service territory.

This project will leverage the NEEA developed Sparktool, which is a high level decision making tool for deep energy retrofits. Research will demonstrate the tool in one building to assess its future application. This tool can be used by utilities to help their key accounts plan deep energy retrofits.