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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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Case study of a DOE 2020 Housing Innovation Award winning custom home in a mixed-humid climate that got a HERS 14 with PV, with 3,259 square feet, triple-paned windows, a hydronic radiant floor heating system, an electric vehicle charging station, and 7.3 kW of rooftop-mounted solar panels.
Case study of a DOE 2021 Housing Innovation Award winning custom home in a hot-humid climate that got a HERS -21 with PV, with 1,288 square feet, ENERGY STAR appliances, low-flow fixtures, low-e3 ENERGY STAR windows, LED lighting, six clerestory windows, and solar tubes.
Case study of a DOE 2021 Housing Innovation Award winning custom home in a cold climate that got a HERS -2 with PV, with 2,478 square feet, ground source heat pump, energy recovery ventilator, skylights and clerestory windows, LED lights with motion sensors, and low- and no-VOC paints, cabinets, flooring, and carpet.
Case study of a DOE 2021 Housing Innovation Award winning custom home in a marine climate that got a HERS -22 with PV, with 2,614 square feet, triple-pane windows, LED lighting, and heat recovery ventilator with a HEPA filter and CO2 sensor.
Case study of a DOE 2020 Housing Innovation Award winning custom home in a cold climate that got a HERS -2 with PV, with 3,357 square feet, 11-inch-thick insulated concrete form walls, 11.34 kilowatts of solar panels on the roof, and high-efficiency 98 AFUE gas furnace.
Case study of a DOE 2020 Housing Innovation Award winning custom home in a mixed-humid climate that got a HERS 9 with PV, with 2,227 square feet, an energy recovery ventilator tied to a high-efficiency central heat pump, and 2x6 advanced framed exterior walls.
Case study of a DOE 2020 Housing Innovation Award winning custom home in a mixed-humid climate that got a HERS 50 without PV, with 3,680 square feet, ENERGY STAR-labeled appliances, WaterSense-labeled fixtures, and 100% LED lighting.
Case study of a DOE 2020 Housing Innovation Award winning custom home in a cold climate that got a HERS -19 with PV, with 2,538 square feet and a large south-facing roof, which is designed to hold over 80 solar panels, and the large south-facing windows, bringing in sunlight to warm the concrete floors and provide passive solar heating.
Case study of a DOE 2020 Housing Innovation Award winning custom home in a cold climate that got a HERS 29 with PV, with 1,793 square feet, high insulation levels in the attic, walls, and under the slab, plus ENERGY STAR appliances, and solar PV panels.
Case study of a DOE 2020 Housing Innovation Award winning custom home in a mixed-humid climate that got a HERS -2 with PV, with 2,500 square feet, featuring a novel attic truss specifically designed to accommodate a ducted mini-split heat pump tucked into an insulated chase in the vented attic. The walls are constructed of 2x6 studs installed at 24 inches on center and incorporating advanced framing techniques to reduce the amount of lumber needed and to provide more room for insulation.
Case study of a DOE 2021 Housing Innovation Award winning custom home in a mixed-humid climate that got a HERS 51 without PV, with 1,940 square feet, MERV 13 filters and low-emission paints, adhesives, and carpeting; plus a sealed, conditioned crawl space, and a high-efficiency gas furnace and heat pump.
Case study of a DOE 2021 Housing Innovation Award winning custom home in a mixed-humid climate that got a HERS 34 with PV, with 1,872 square feet, ENERGY STAR appliances and lighting, high-efficiency HVAC, along with 1.9-kW of photovoltaic panels.
Case study of a DOE 2021 Housing Innovation Award winning custom home in a marine climate that got a HERS -13 with PV, with 1,804 square feet, highly efficient construction; high-efficiency ductless minisplit heat pumps, appliances, and lighting; triple-pane windows; and 9.9 kW of solar panels on each of the monoplane roofs.
Case study of a DOE 2021 Housing Innovation Award winning custom home in a cold climate that got a HERS 5 with PV, with 3,934 square feet, ENERGY STAR appliances and windows, LED lighting, and a heat pump water heater.
Case study of a DOE 2021 Housing Innovation Award winning custom home in a cold climate that got a HERS 33 without PV, with 1,936 square feet, gable roof with asphalt shingles, attic insulated with 14 inches (R-49) of blown cellulose, and triple-pane windows.
Portland General Electric (PGE), an investor-owned electric utility serving nearly 900,000 customers in 51 Oregon cities, joined Western Energy Imbalance Market (EIM) – a California Independent System Operator (CAISO) platform for sharing cleaner and more efficient generation resources among multiple states in the Western U.S. While participation in EIM brings a new set of economic opportunities for PGE by capturing flexibility needs in the market, it also changes operational patterns (e.g., more frequent start/stop, off-nominal power output, and ramping) of PGE’s conventional generation fleet, including hydropower units. With 492 MW of hydropower capacity, which constitutes 15\% of PGE’s generation mix, it is important for PGE (as any other EIM-participant utility) to understand how participation in EIM impacts its hydropower assets, and how a techno-economically sustainable operation of those assets could be accomplished. In this paper, a case study is performed with PGE's hydropower generation facilities to assess and quantify EIM-participation driven changes in hydropower operational patterns.
Utilizing policies and programs which incentivize energy efficiency or on-site renewables is difficult. The challenges and costs associated with researching these policies, interacting with their providers, and ensuring regulatory compliance can be collectively referred to as administrative burden. To better understand the impact of administrative burden on energy efficiency policies, we investigated the administrative burden associated with energy sales arrangements (ESA). ESAs are a contracting vehicle related to energy savings performance contracts where an energy services company designs and constructs a renewable energy system at a federal site, transferring ownership of those generating assets to the site after a 20-year term. We conducted a series of in-depth interviews with a variety of relevant ESA stakeholders, including federal project managers, subject matter experts, and energy service companies. We then augmented these interviews with a review of the relevant literature. This research indicated that the current level of administrative burden decreases the adoption of renewable energy through ESAs by the federal government by raising upfront costs, depressing project attempts due to complexity, and introducing delays and challenges in successfully implemented projects. This chilling effect is especially pronounced in new policy vehicles and with inexperienced implementers. Findings from the specific case of ESAs can be generalized to other types of energy policy including efficiency programs. Policy makers decrease the efficacy of initiatives through increased administrative burden, and these effects will be most pronounced in programs with novel design or targeted at unfamiliar audiences.
Rural and smaller-sized communities in North America face unique mobility challenges due to their low population density, lower public transit spending per capita compared to major cities, and a high reliance on private vehicles. In recent years, communities such as Fort Erie, Ontario, have restructured or advanced their public transit systems using on-demand services. Fort Erie is a relatively sparsely populated region of 32,901 residents, spread across a land area of 166 square kilometers (64 square miles), for an average population density of 193 residents per square kilometer (500 per square mile). In October 2021, the town implemented a mobility-on-demand system integrated with smartphone software to replace its fixed-route community bus system, which consisted of four buses with three routes, each with a roughly 1-hour, one-way loop. The new service utilizes a fleet of six minivans, two of which are retrofitted with wheelchair-accessible ramps. The system may require that a passenger requesting a standard van walk up to 400 meters (a quarter mile) to their pickup location to optimize vehicle routing while providing origin-to-destination service. The on-demand system proved effective in providing service, eclipsing pre-pandemic ridership by 40%, decreasing greenhouse gas emissions per ride by 63%, and decreasing the cost to the town per ride by 29%. This report documents both the previous system and the new system in terms of routes, ridership, costs, fuel, and other notable system parameters. This work is part of an ongoing series of case studies on providing small communities with on-demand, right-sized vehicle service coupled with a smartphone application.