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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 577 records · Page 32
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Aniak Energy Efficiency Retrofit Project

The Native Village of Aniak (NVA) is a remote Yup’ik community in western Alaska. NVA is proposing to install energy efficiency measures in the Tribal Office, Community Center, Association of Village Council Presidents (AVCP) Office, and Duplex. The goal of the project is to reduce the overall energy use of the NVA by implementing energy efficiency measures in four high-use tribal buildings. This project expects to have the following outcomes: projected annual energy savings of approximately $24,238; projected annual reduction in fuel oil of roughly 1,802 gallons and electricity of around 24,537 kWh; and annual reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of approximately 84,594 pounds/year.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
NASA NTRS1994

Ventilating Air-Conditioner

Air-conditioner provides ventilation designed to be used alone or incorporated into cooling or heating system operates efficiently only by recirculating stale air within building. Energy needed to operate overall ventilating cooling or heating system slightly greater than operating nonventilating cooling or heating system. Helps to preserve energy efficiency while satisfying need for increased forced ventilation to prevent accumulation of undesired gases like radon and formaldehyde. Provides fresh treated air to variety of confined spaces: hospital surgeries, laboratories, clean rooms, and printing shops and other places where solvents used. In mobile homes and portable classrooms, eliminates irritant chemicals exuded by carpets, panels, and other materials, ensuring healthy indoor environment for occupants.

Dinh, Khanh↗
DOE OSTI2022

Application of reference-free natural background–oriented schlieren photography for visualizing leakage sites in building walls

Air leakage in buildings can cause health and comfort concerns for occupants and can contribute to mold growth on building materials, or in extreme conditions, rot of building materials. Unwanted air leakage through the building envelope also contributes to approximately 4 quadrillion Btu (1172 TWh) of energy consumption per year in the building sector in the United States. Locating and sealing leakage sites can improve the energy efficiency, comfort, air quality, and moisture durability of the building stock. Typical methods of finding leakage sites, such as infrared imaging and smoke tracing, rely on concurrent blower door operation, which can also measure the total leakage rate of the building. Smoke tracing can be disruptive to occupants, and infrared imaging and smoke tracing cannot measure the contribution of individual leaks to prioritize sealing efforts. Here, an optical fluid flow imaging technique, reference-free natural background–oriented schlieren imaging, was adapted to visualize air exfiltration. This is the first step in developing a method to noninvasively locate and measure exfiltration or infiltration sites so that sealing efforts can be prioritized. Experimental results of this technique are presented, demonstrating the method's applicability to visualizing exfiltration through three common building claddings in an outdoor environment. Key variables impacting the performance of this technique when applied to building leakage are also discussed.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2020

ENERGY STAR for Tenants: An Online Energy Estimation Tool for Commercial Office Building Tenants

The commercial building sector consumes over 18% of the total energy in the United States. According to the 2012 Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS), office buildings comprise nearly 16 billion square feet of floor space and consume 253 billion kWh of energy annually. Office buildings represent nearly one-fifth of the energy consumed by commercial buildings, more than any other building type. Therefore, monitoring and reducing energy consumption in office buildings has become an increasingly important focus across the United States. The goal of the ENERGY STAR for Tenants program is to recognize office building tenants who demonstrate commitment to energy efficiency and environmental stewardship. Tenants seeking recognition must complete five major steps: estimate energy use, meter energy use, use efficient lighting, use efficient equipment, and share data. NREL is responsible for the underlying analysis performed for step one, estimating energy use. An online survey was developed for tenants to input information about their office space and its internal loads. NREL performed a parametric analysis across a large parameter space of office buildings. The analysis results were processed to map the user inputs to output energy ranges. The mappings enable the web tool to provide users with instant energy usage estimates based on a limited number of inputs.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2022

Aleut Community Store Refrigeration Efficiency Retrofit with Heat Recovery (Final Report)

The Project Goal is to improve the energy efficiency of the Aleut Community Store by installing deep energy retrofits. Project Objectives are: 1) Replace refrigeration equipment and display cases with an energy efficient refrigeration system and energy efficient refrigeration display cases; utilize waste heat to heat the building; and 2) Lower cost of energy and maintenance for Aleut Community Store by $44,385 (energy and maintenance)

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2020

Developing Flexible, Networked Lighting Control Systems That Reliably Save Energy in California Buildings

An important strategy to meet California's ambitious energy efficiency goals is to use innovative wireless communications, embedded sensors, data analytics and controls to significantly reduce lighting energy use in commercial buildings. This project developed a suite of networked lighting solutions to further this goal. The technologies include a platform for low-cost sensing, distributed intelligence and communications, the “PermaMote,” which is a self-powered sensor and controller for lighting applications. The project team also developed a task ambient daylighting system that integrates sensors with data-driven daylighting control using an open communication interface, called the “Readings-At-Desk” (RAD) system. To address the problem of building occupants being confused about how to operate traditional lighting control systems, the research team created content that could be the basis for a user interface standard for lighting controls. Finally, to address the difficulty of ensuring that advanced lighting control systems actually deliver their promised energy savings, the project team developed a new method for evaluating and specifying lighting systems’ performance. The research team validated these technologies in the laboratory, showing significant lighting energy savings, up to 73% for the PermaMote sensor system from occupancy control and daylight dimming features, compared to the same light source (LED replacement lamps) operated via simple on/off scheduling. The project team also developed a proposed standard lighting data model and user interface elements, which were contributed to the ANSI Lighting Systems Committee (C137) for standardization. Existing data models are incomplete and inconsistent, whereas the lighting-specific data model developed here is clear and comprehensive, to serve as a starting point for creating common, universally agreed upon semantic definitions of key lighting parameters, to promote interoperability. For the task on verifiable performance of lighting systems, the project team developed a more effective metric for capturing the actual energy impact of a lighting system over time — the energy usage intensity (kWh/ft2/year). Three commercial lighting systems were tested in FLEXLAB® using this new metric, and the tests show a wide range in the accuracy of the self-reported energy-use metric, from 0.5% to 28% error compared to direct measurement of lighting energy using dedicated submeters. Overall, the project team estimates that these advanced technologies can reduce California office lighting energy use by 20% (above and beyond normal advanced lighting controls mandated by Title 24), resulting in about 1,600 GWh/year in savings.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2026

ResStock Measure Documentation: Light Air Sealing, Attic Floor Insulation, and Duct Sealing and Insulation

This report is part of series describing a variety of different ResStock(TM) measures. "Measures" refers to energy efficiency retrofits that can be applied to buildings during modeling. This documentation covers the "Light Envelope" measure upgrade methodology and briefly discusses key results. All results can be accessed on the ResStock Open Energy Data Initiative "End-Use Load Profiles for the U.S. Building Stock" data lake and on the data viewer at resstock.nlr.gov.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2024

Unlocking Energy Efficiency: Debunking Myths on the Road to Decarbonization

Energy efficiency is widely recognized as the foundational and most critical strategy for decarbonizing the manufacturing sector. Misconceptions surrounding energy efficiency measures often hinder their widespread adoption. This article aims to debunk five common myths and provides data and resources to help implement efficiency projects faster and more effectively to achieve greater decarbonization. First, the article challenges the myth that organizations have exhausted all possible energy efficiency opportunities by achieving voluntary energy intensity goals or energy performance certification. Second, it also addresses the misconceptions that efficiency projects are capital-intensive, require many qualified specialists, and have long investment return periods. By presenting real-world case studies and referencing commonly found efficiency opportunities, the article illustrates that energy-savings opportunities are ubiquitous. Organizations can use various contracting mechanisms as well as financial and technical resources from utility companies and government programs to lessen their burden. The notion that efficiency measures can be implemented solely in proprietorship facilities is dispelled. This article emphasizes the importance of green leases and explains that aligning decarbonization goals between the lessor and lessee can help drive savings for both parties. Finally, using unbundled renewable energy certificates as the sole pathway to decarbonization is strongly discouraged. By debunking these prevalent myths, this article aims to foster a deeper understanding of energy efficiency’s potential as a cornerstone of decarbonization efforts and to embrace it as a critical pathway toward a sustainable future.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2025

Development and evaluation of a multi-functional heat pump with embedded thermal storage

We developed and tested a novel multi-functional packaged vertical heat pump designed for multi-family buildings, capable of providing space cooling, space heating, water heating, and energy storage integration. The system employs a 3-speed scroll compressor and supports energy-efficient cooling and heating across different ambient conditions, while utilizing both indoor and outdoor air sources for water heating. Key performance metrics include an integrated energy efficiency ratio of 18.0 for cooling, a heating seasonal performance factor of 10.0, and a coefficient of performance (COP) of 2.1 for heating in cold climates down to −15 ˚C. Additionally, the system delivers an annual water heating COP greater than 4.0, with outstanding performance in combined space cooling and water heating modes, achieving a total COP of 8.8 by recovering condenser waste heat. The heat pump also demonstrated thermal energy storage capabilities, integrating with phase change material systems to store heating and cooling energy. Furthermore, this versatile system offers a promising solution for improving energy efficiency and sustainability in multi-family buildings, providing high-performance heating, cooling, and water heating across a range of climates.

COP↗
DOE OSTI2022

Instrumentation for Assessing DC Electrical Distribution Systems in Buildings

Direct current (DC) distribution systems is emerging as a favorable option over alternating current in buildings due to its energy and non-energy benefits (e.g., efficiency, resilience, safety). However, limited guidelines exist to evaluate the DC electrical distribution infrastructure. This paper aims to fill that gap by detailing our experience with metering a building-level electrical DC distribution system. Our case study is a DC microgrid at the Direct Energy Partners Research & Development facility located in Charlotte, North Carolina. This paper presents our approach, technical challenges, and lessons learned with DC metering and instrumentation.

buildings↗
DOE OSTI2022

End-Use Load Profiles for the U.S. Building Stock: Practical Guidance on Accessing and Using the Data

End-use load profiles (EULP), which quantify how and when energy is used, are critically important to utilities, public utility commissions, state energy offices, and other stakeholders. Applications of EULPs focus on understanding how efficiency, demand response, and other distributed energy resources are valued and used in R&D prioritization, utility resource and distribution system planning, and state and local energy planning and regulations. Consequently, high-quality EULPs are critical for widespread adoption of electrification, demand flexibility, and grid-interactive efficient buildings. For example, EULPs can be used to forecast energy savings in buildings or to identify energy using activities that can be shifted to different times of the day.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Energy Savings and Usability of Zero-Client Computing in Office Settings

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) worked with industry stakeholders to develop voluntary national guidelines to improve the quality and consistency of commercial building workforce credentials for four key energy-efficiency related jobs.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Resources for Homeowners: Home Efficiency Upgrades

A fact sheet to support small business building contractors in communicating with homeowners about potential benefits of home efficiency strategies and suggestions for navigating home upgrades. This work was developed under the Building Business Network (B-Biz) program, which aims to improve adoption of high-performance building technology solutions by collaborating with organizations that support small business contractors that provide and service high-performance building technologies.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2025

A segmented approach to modeling building height: Delineating high-rise and low-rise buildings for enhanced height estimation

Understanding building height is imperative to the overall study of energy efficiency, population distribution, urban morphologies, emergency response, among others. Currently, existing approaches for modeling building height at scale are hindered by two pervasive issues. First, there is no consistent approach to quantify what a high-rise building is at a macro scale, leaving researchers unable to accurately compare results across geographies and domains. Second, high-rise buildings represent a small fraction of the built environment, implying data imbalance challenges that negatively affect current approaches. This is a problem of practical relevance since information on high-rise buildings is important for studies on urban heat islands, population dynamics, and pollution dispersion. Here, we introduce a novel approach to map building height which first identifies two distinct distributions within the built environment, with one being composed of low-rise buildings and one composed of high-rise buildings. We then develop an ensemble scheme where discrete specialist models are trained for each subset of low-rise buildings and high-rise buildings to infer building height from morphology features. For experiments mapping heights of 4.85 million buildings in Japan, we show an increase of 34 % in accuracy within 3m error when compared to the current state-of-the-art when modeling high-rise buildings, which based on KNN experimentation we define as any building > 12m . Our findings show that such an ensemble framework outperforms the current state-of-the-art approaches, which is especially relevant in relation to inferring height for high-rise buildings, a prominent issue of existing approaches for mapping the built environment.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2026

U.S. Department of Energy Energy to Communities Program: Moore Street Seniors, Inc., Building Survey

Per U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Energy to Communities (E2C) Expert Match Program, National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) staff provided Technical Assistance (TA) to Moore Street Seniors, Inc., in Fairbanks, Alaska. NLR provided, within the TA scope of work, a list of Recommendations and Best Practices, as well as Data Analysis and Final Deliverable Development. NLR staff have provided the results within this report and several Energy Efficiency Considerations for Moore Street Seniors Inc. Window replacement considerations and best practices are listed in section 3.8. Building ventilation considerations and best practices are listed in section 3.9. A full list of Energy Efficiency Considerations is listed in section 3.10 of this report.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Variable Refrigerant Flow Performance: Humidity and Efficiency in Multifamily Buildings in New York, NY

Variable refrigerant flow (VRF) systems have become common in large multifamily buildings. The upfront cost is appealing to developers, as a single system can provide all heating and cooling. VRF systems also use no on-site fossil fuels which can help avoid greenhouse gas emissions. However, there have been very few data on how VRF systems actually perform in buildings. Researchers monitored three new, multifamily buildings with a focus on VRF system sizing, humidity control, and energy efficiency.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2022

Utilizing commercial heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems to provide grid services: A review

The modern power grid faces multiple challenges due to an increase in the adoption of renewable generation, such as dynamically balancing supply and demand at different time scales. Demand side management in buildings plays a vital role in achieving this balance because buildings can provide grid services through a variety of building assets. However, the development of grid-interactive, efficient buildings is still in its infancy, and a systematic and holistic understanding of grid service delivery strategies in terms of energy efficiency, load shifting, load shedding and load modulating is still limited. This paper is a comprehensive review of the development and application of building-level control strategies for utilizing heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems to provide grid services. These strategies have been investigated through numerical and experimental studies. Control algorithms, such as heuristic rule-based control and model-based control, have been used to enable the automatic control delivery of grid services. The advantages and disadvantages of the strategies are summarized and discussed. Finally, research trends are also identified, which include considering predicted mean vote-based and occupant-based thermal comfort, modeling of occupant behavior, integrating power grid operations with building control, and combining different demand flexibility modes in the control design.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2022

MFVI Energy Efficiency Audit Training Module 2.1: Plug Loads [Slides]

This guide is designed to help trained energy efficiency professionals conduct an energy efficiency audit for commercial and industrial buildings, particularly for micro-, small-, and medium-sized businesses in Mexico. This guide is focused on auditing plug load systems. As such, it will assist its user in documenting the plug loads in the space and then identifying the most efficient means of delivering those plug loads.

21CPP↗