Research Tracker

SWA will evaluate the opportunities, savings potential, and limitations of ccASHPs in New York State homes. Improved energy modeling techniques will be developed for various tools. Guidelines will be developed describing ccASHP opportunities in NYS homes, including operating costs, installed costs, climate-dependent factors, low-temperature limitations, integration issues and possible limitations. Guidelines will also be developed for energy modelers to help accurately predict ccASHP performance with common modeling tools.

This research investigates how community-scale solar water heating can reduce energy consumption (both natural gas and electricity) and greenhouse gas emissions for communities pursuing highly efficient advanced energy systems that reduce or eliminate reliance on fossil fuels, and the cost effectiveness in doing so.

Evoworld will complete the necessary development work resulting in a new user interface that provides end-users with a simple layout, quick access to operating data, and appliance performance feedback. Evoworld will also revise their Installation, Maintenance, and Operating manuals. The project will conclude with the development of a commissioning report and installer training curriculum, which should improve the quality of installations of Evoworld products within NYS and elsewhere.

The project will produce a standardizable, transferable, climate zone-specific net zero energy ready retrofit system. This system will be tested at a multifamily affordable housing pilot site.

The New Buildings Institute will work in a variety cities around the country to systematically identify how energy codes and other policy measures influence energy consumption patterns in municipal buildings. The New Buildings Institute will develop a methodology to measure the impact of codes on municipal building portfolios, and provide local governments with tools to identify which buildings are ripe for energy efficiency-related investments.

This project will study selected software and hardware platforms that apply algorithms to identify, diagnose, and sometimes fix broken electric cooling, ventilation and refrigeration systems in buildings. If widely used, the fault detection and diagnosis tools validated in this project could have savings of 927 Tbtu per year.

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.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association will improve energy savings in the retail sector by helping energy managers secure financing for efficiency projects—a key barrier to energy efficiency investment in this sector. This project will result in at least five new replicable energy financial management strategies.

This project will develop integrated plug load control strategies appropriate for different spaces within multiple types of commercial buildings. The project will implement a flexible energy management system (FEMS) to demonstrate the integrated control strategies for plug loads at pilot sites, including installation of smart power outlets and integration of various plug load control strategies with building energy management and/or lighting control systems. The project is designed to demonstrate and measure the degree of effectiveness of the flexible control strategies developed for integrally managing operation of plug loads to achieve energy efficiency and demand reductions.

PPG Industries, Inc. will develop high-performing dark-colored pigments for use in cool roof coatings. These pigments would satisfy customers' demand for dark-colored cool roofs and lead to 0.17 quads of energy savings annually.

This project will design and develop innovative LED lighting solutions for three key general illumination product categories. These solutions are a best-in-class medium, screw-base replacement lamp, linear tubular light emitting diode (TLED) replacement lamps and spectrally optimized, dedicated LED luminaires. Product design requirements will be based on consumer light quality and functional performance preferences determined through a series of unique laboratory-based consumer preference and product characterization studies

This project will design and develop innovative LED lighting solutions for three key general illumination product categories. These solutions are a best-in-class medium, screw-base replacement lamp, linear tubular light emitting diode (TLED) replacement lamps and spectrally optimized, dedicated LED luminaires. Product design requirements will be based on consumer light quality and functional performance preferences determined through a series of unique laboratory-based consumer preference and product characterization studies

This project will provide a detailed market segmentation and baseline energy demand assessment of the gaming market, including development of measurement and benchmarking protocols for gaming software and hardware. Top-selling gaming PCs and games are then cross-benchmarked and retrofitted to achieve maximum energy savings beyond what commercialized products currently can attain.