Research Tracker

Provide enhanced residential efficiency analysis tools tailored for the Pacific Northwest. 1. A residential building energy analysis tool based on BEopt/EnergyPlus, used to identify cost-optimal efficiency packages 2. A regional residential efficiency analysis tool driven by BEopt/EnergyPlus simulations/optimizations and calibrated to Residential Building Stock Assessment (RBSA) data, used to assess residential building energy conservation potential The project has been completed and additional Technology Transfer activities are being explored to promote the use of these tools throughout the Pacific NW.

Optimize heat pump water heater (HPWH) next generation project for both energy efficiency (EE) and demand response (DR). In recent years, heat pump water heaters have reemerged as a potentially high impact energy efficient technology. Hybrid heat pump water heaters have been shown by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to provide high efficiency electric water heating. The EPRI Energy Efficiency Demonstration has shown energy savings of 20-40% over conventional water heaters in preliminary analysis. The project will address: the feasibility of variable speed compressors to eliminate electric resistance backup; alternative refrigerants and system configurations; demand response and ancillary service opportunities and strategies, and whole building impacts of heat pump water heater systems.

This project will apply the framework created in the prior research to develop early deployment plans for three additional technologies and to guide early deployments with multiple utilities for five technologies, two of which were planned in prior research. The three technologies being deployed are heat pump water heaters, led menu boards, and engine generator block heaters.

This project is intended to inform both utilities and the public of the potential energy saving benefits of smart thermostats. For utilities, it may provide a measure of how these thermostats fit into their programs and how customers use them to enable energy or demand savings. Utilities will get an opportunity to gauge cost-effectiveness of energy efficiency programs for smart thermostats. Demand response from residential air-conditioners has been a target of many utility programs, but the cost of installation of load control devices and the resulting perceived compromise in customer comfort have been large barriers.

The project will evaluate alternative defrost methods for use in residential and light commercial Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs) in order to reduce the negative effects conventional defrost methods create and improve energy efficiency and overall system performance. The use of a hot gas bypass method, similar to that employed in commercial refrigeration systems, will be investigated, as well as frost-preventing coil coatings. Heat pump prototypes will be constructed in order to enable future design and optimization of heat pump products and their associated control strategies.

The goal of this research project is to determine if it is possible to pre-heat water for swimming pools to save energy. The study is designed to show the efficacy of this application as well as the associated energy savings. In 2016, BPA engineering collected baseline operation data on the existing electric resistance water heater for a residential swimming pool. Early in 2017, the CO2HPWH was installed and monitored. The initial results showed that the system was under performing and a number of modifications are being considered. The current plan is to implement the modifications and monitor the new design through December 2017 to allow for warm and cold weather operation. A final paper will be prepared by February 2018. While this study is focused on the residential sector, the nature and results of this study are also applicable to water heating EE projects in the commercial sector. BPA will generate a summary brief which will inform the region of the results. Its important to build the body of knowledge for CO2 heat pumps and demonstrate the efficacy of a new use case.

This supplemental project has been designed to provide utilities a means of working together in a coordinated fashion to test this concept in field environments. The goals of this supplemental project are: 1. To prove the performance of universal Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) 2045 communications port (comm port) 2. Convince manufacturers that the installation of a simple comm port is very low-cost, and makes their equipment easy to incorporate into any utility demand response (DR) program nationwide so that it could eventually become standard practice on all water heaters. If that can be achieved, then the question of whether or not a customer participates in a utility DR program becomes a simpler customer choice.

Heating water for commercial is identified in the 7th Power Plan as desired measures. The goal of this project is to fund the design, installation, commissioning and warranty of a large commercial heat pump water heater (HPWHs) as an Emerging Technology Field Test. BPA will award fund utility grants to design, install and commissioning the unit, meter energy usage and provide data to BPA for further analyses. Each utility will also provide results regarding the design, installation, and commissioning of the unit which will be shared publically

Commercial HVAC Efficient Pumping Technology has been identified by BPA as having significant electrical energy savings potential. Grants will be awarded to BPA customer utilities to test CHEP installation for Commercial, Agricultural and Industrial applications. Pump retrofits include integrated, variable-speed HVAC system pumps ranging in size between 1/3 and 10 horse power with controls. To date, three utilities have requested financial assistance for installations. The units will be installed in 2017 and utilities will provide reports within one year to report on system performance and present information on potential market barriers.

The goal of this grant is to share the cost for the design, installation, and commissioning to replace Roof Top Units (RTU) with Heat Recovery Ventilation (HRV) and Variable Capacity Heat Pump (VCHP) systems. In 2016, Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) identified this potential RTU replacement strategy to help meet the regions energy efficiency targets and conducted a proof of concept study for this new replacement system. NEEAs preliminary analysis estimates that an HRV and VC HP system could be combined to save over seventy percent of the energy used by RTUs. BPA is interested in obtaining field data for additional systems in the Pacific Northwest. The expected results from this project include the following: HRV and VC HP system cost effectiveness information; System performance data; Verification that whole-building billing analysis is an adequate methodology to measure savings, and Identification of best practices for installation and commissioning based on feedback from the owner, utility, designer, contractor and occupants.

The goal of the project is to collect both historical and current water use data as it relates to the installation and operation of Smart Irrigation Controllers for residential and commercial landscaping applications in BPA service territory. BPA will work with customer utilities to install Smart Irrigation Controllers in residential and commercial landscaping applications to determine the water and electrical energy savings of each installation. The performance period of the study will include the entire 2016 irrigation watering season and a final report will be due in December 2017.

The project includes feasibility and design studies followed by demonstration of a large central reverse cycle chiller (RCC) or heat pump water heaters for energy efficient production of domestic hot water in multifamily residential projects. Feasibility and design studies were completed in 2010. The first installation was completed in November 2012; a second installation was completed in the Spring 2013. The next phase of the project will include measurement and verification of energy savings. The project will conclude with a final report of lessons learned and recommendations for future applications of this technology. This project will look to answer the following research question: quantify the energy savings using a large heat pump water heater (or called RCC) vs. electric resistance domestic hot water in a multifamily (MF) application to prove the concept, and understand technical challenges and whether this is a good technology for multifamily sector.

In the 7th Power Plan in the Pacific NW region, Advanced Power Strips have been identified as having significant savings potential. BPA would like to test this technology in commercial settings to determine energy savings; to understand unit performance; identify best practices for installation and gather feedback from end users. BPA will work with utilities to identify potential sites.

This is a continuation of the previous and current work with the Sanden split system HPWH which was funded through TI. To date, 4 installations have been completed in the NW region. Following the successful completion of a Market and Technical Assessment, BPA will seek additional installations to document energy savings; demonstrate the viability of the product in the NW; and produce user and installation manuals to facilitate the market update of this technology.

Ducted mini-splits are currently available for single family applications. Research is required to determine if these units will be more efficient than the traditional ductless heat pumps (DHPs) with back up resistance heating. If the lab test shows that Ducted mini splits provide more sufficient savings then a field test will be implemented.

BPA funded a small field test through NEEA to understand if DHPs could be installed by owners to reduce installation costs to improve cost effectiveness. NEEA received funding to track the 4 installations. There were key learnings from each installation which were documented to share with the region. Preliminary results were reported earlier this year to members of the BPA and NEEA by Ecotope who managed the installations.

Starting in 2016, the project team met to define research objectives to take an Unit Energy Savings - Deemed research proposal to the RTF in early 2018. The team is working to collect data from 100 LESA conversions to determine energy savings. To date the team has collected information from approximately 40 sites in Idaho through a collaboration with Rocky Mountain Power. The team expects over data from over 100 sites to be collected during the summer of 2017. The project team is monitoring soil moisture content on 15 - 20 sites in Oregon and Washington to provide additional information to the RTF.

In 2013, BPA received an unsolicited proposal for a case study for a side-by-side comparison of a geothermal heat pump and variable refrigerant flow (VRF) system in nearly identical multifamily housing units in Tacoma, Washington. The project provided a unique opportunity to evaluate these two technologies while providing an application for multifamily housing. The project will determine how the seasonal performance of the two systems for space conditioning and production of hot water compares. The following information will be provided for the operation of both units: quantified savings and costs over a specific baseline; understanding of the engineering design, installation, ownership, and possible utility barriers; quantified annual energy savings, benefits, and costs; documented magnitude and longevity of the incremental electric energy savings; documented operation and energy use; and described energy savings time of occurrence and duration, load shape, and lifetime.

The objective of this research is to design, build and test a residential / light commercial heat pump high density thermal storage (HPT) system. Various high density thermal storage materials, including Zeolite and metal organic framework (MOF) materials, will be evaluated for system size and costs. The research will build a proof-of-concept heat pump high density thermal storage (HPT) prototype to test and demonstrate the feasibility and potential of the proposed technology. This prototype will quantify the potential energy and demand savings benefits of the identified combination of the HPT and determine the controls and other requirements to enable successful load shifting and demand response capability for the developed HPT solution

In this project, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will partner with Robert Bosch, LLC and Colorado State University to develop and demonstrate a novel technology package which can overcome numerous adoption barriers and achieve energy savings as well as providing flexible demand-side management including demand response. The full scope of this project is to develop and demonstrate an innovative Home Battery System which provides electric energy storage and conversion, along with self-learning adaptive control signal outputs for appliances and reliable predictions for residential demand response. The team will develop and perform preliminary validation of customer identification program (CIP) requirements on the Home Battery System. The work will results in improved understanding of the system performance and cost tradeoffs. The project will make substantial progress toward a marketable product but may not result in a market-ready Home Battery System product.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has just completed extensive research to determine energy efficiency savings for storm windows. The goal of this project is to obtain residential and possible commercial Unit Energy Savings (UES) measure approval from the Regional Technical Forum (RTF) for interior and exterior low-e storm windows. This work will create the (Simplified Energy Enthalpy Model) SEEM workbook and ProCost model to inform regional savings and cost-effectiveness assumptions, presentation of these data to the RTF in collaboration with RTF staff, and associated documentation.

Ducted mini-splits are currently available for single family applications. Research is required to determine if these units will be more efficient than the traditional ductless heat pumps DHPs with back up resistance heating. This research project will utilize the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Lab Homes to test how the performance of a multi-zone ducted mini split application compares to the traditional single zone DHP with back up resistance heat in a single family application. The PNNL Lab homes provide the opportunity to conduct a side by side experiment with identical homes. Results of this research will determine if BPA should pursue additional field tests.

Create a buying guide for someone who wants to purchase an easily commissioned lighting control system. What are some of the main products available, and how do they compare to each other? The Lighting Research Center (LRC) will conduct pilot testing and analysis of three selected control systems to independently verify system commissioning, operation, and compatibility with two different integral LED luminaire layoutsoffice and high bay. The LRC will also quantify system operational characteristics, commissioning, and energy savings under field conditions.

The Lighting Research Center (LRC) will conduct pilot testing and analysis of three selected control systems to independently verify system commissioning, operation, and compatibility with two different integral LED luminaire layouts. The LRC will also quantify system operational characteristics, commissioning, and energy savings under field conditions. To begin the project, the LRC will specify a lighting control system capable of operating four integral LED suspended luminaires. The controls manufacturers selected will be CREE, Wattstopper, and Lutron. The LRC will also order eight integral LED luminaires (four luminaires from CREE Lighting with 0-10V drivers and step-dimming drivers that are used with the fixture integrated lighting sensors and four from Lithonia Lighting with 0-10V drivers). Six luminaire control system combinations will be evaluated in this project.

Installed LED Lighting fixtures and lamps at a number of different types of BPA facilities