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At least 811 records · Page 45
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

ComStock Measure Documentation: Thermostat and Lighting Control for Load Shedding

This report describes the modeling methodology for an upgrade package of two end-use savings shape measures - Thermostat Control for Load Shedding and Lighting Control for Load Shedding - and briefly introduces key results. The package combines thermostat control for load shedding and lighting control for load shedding measures to reduce the HVAC and lighting load during the building's electricity peak window every weekday. The measure takes daily peak load schedule inputs generated by the method "Dispatch Schedule Generation" described in the "Supplemental Documentation: Dispatch Schedule Generation for Demand Flexibility Measures" to determine the start and end times of the predicted peak window, and then relaxes the thermostat setpoints and dims the lighting level from the original schedules during the peak window to reduce the peak demand. The measure is applicable to (large, medium and small) offices, warehouses, and primary and secondary schools, which correspond to approximately 68% of the stock floor area of commercial buildings in ComStock analysis. The measure demonstrates 3%-10% daily peak demand reduction performance for applicable buildings, and 0.97% total site energy savings (0 trillion British thermal units [TBtu]) for the U.S. commercial building stock modeled in ComStock.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2025

ComStock Measure Documentation: Thermostat and Lighting Control for Load Shedding + Photovoltaics With 40% Rooftop Coverage

This report describes the modeling methodology for an upgrade package of two end-use savings shape measures - Thermostat Control for Load Shedding and Lighting Control for Load Shedding - and briefly introduces key results. The package combines thermostat control for load shedding, lighting control for load shedding, and PV with 40% rooftop coverage measures to reduce the net building load during the building's electricity peak window every weekday. The measure takes daily peak load schedule inputs generated by the method "Dispatch Schedule Generation" described in the "Supplemental Documentation: Dispatch Schedule Generation for Demand Flexibility Measures" to determine the start and end times of the predicted peak window, and then relaxes the thermostat setpoints and dims the lighting level from the original schedules during the peak window to reduce the peak demand, while applying the fixed rooftop PV application for onsite electricity generation. The measure is applicable to (large, medium and small) offices, warehouses, and primary and secondary schools, which correspond to approximately 68% of the stock floor area of commercial buildings in ComStock analysis. The measure demonstrates 5%-15% daily peak demand reduction performance for applicable buildings, and around 1% total site energy savings (0 trillion British thermal units [TBtu]) for the U.S. commercial building stock modeled in ComStock.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS1995

Adaptive Optimization of Aircraft Engine Performance Using Neural Networks

Preliminary results are presented on the development of an adaptive neural network based control algorithm to enhance aircraft engine performance. This work builds upon a previous National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) effort known as Performance Seeking Control (PSC). PSC is an adaptive control algorithm which contains a model of the aircraft's propulsion system which is updated on-line to match the operation of the aircraft's actual propulsion system. Information from the on-line model is used to adapt the control system during flight to allow optimal operation of the aircraft's propulsion system (inlet, engine, and nozzle) to improve aircraft engine performance without compromising reliability or operability. Performance Seeking Control has been shown to yield reductions in fuel flow, increases in thrust, and reductions in engine fan turbine inlet temperature. The neural network based adaptive control, like PSC, will contain a model of the propulsion system which will be used to calculate optimal control commands on-line. Hopes are that it will be able to provide some additional benefits above and beyond those of PSC. The PSC algorithm is computationally intensive, it is valid only at near steady-state flight conditions, and it has no way to adapt or learn on-line. These issues are being addressed in the development of the optimal neural controller. Specialized neural network processing hardware is being developed to run the software, the algorithm will be valid at steady-state and transient conditions, and will take advantage of the on-line learning capability of neural networks. Future plans include testing the neural network software and hardware prototype against an aircraft engine simulation. In this paper, the proposed neural network software and hardware is described and preliminary neural network training results are presented.

Simon, Donald L.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Analysis of predicted mean vote-based model predictive control for residential HVAC systems

Model Predictive Control (MPC) is an advanced process control method that has attracted much attention in building heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Here, this paper analyzes the optimal precooling performance in residential buildings using MPC with two different comfort indices, namely, temperature and predicted mean vote (PMV). It first formulates, for each comfort index, an optimization problem that accounts for different factors, such as weather, home thermal condition, prediction horizon, time-of use (TOU) utility rate, and rated cooling capacity. The problem is then solved, resulting in an MPC strategy that determines the HVAC on/off control signal and minimizes energy cost over a receding time horizon while maintaining thermal comfort. The energy performance difference between temperature-based and PMV-based MPC strategies is subsequently investigated, especially in light of the interior wall surface temperature and under different combinations of the factors. Extensive simulation results demonstrated that the proposed MPC strategies are adaptive and their performances depend primarily on weather, home thermal condition, and prediction horizon, while the impact of TOU utility rate and rated cooling capacity is relatively small. Because the PMV-based MPC strategy can take advantage of the lower interior wall surface temperature due to precooling, it resulted in 8–45% cost savings for the scenarios investigated and an average increase of 0.042–0.113 in the absolute value of the PMV index compared to the temperature-based MPC strategy.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2013

On Variations of Space-heating Energy Use in Office Buildings

Space heating is the largest energy end use, consuming more than 7 quintillion joules of site energy annually in the U.S. building sector. A few recent studies showed discrepancies in simulated space-heating energy use among different building energy modeling programs, and the simulated results are suspected to be underpredicting reality. While various uncertainties are associated with building simulations, especially when simulations are performed by different modelers using different simulation programs for buildings with different configurations, it is crucial to identify and evaluate key driving factors to space-heating energy use in order to support the design and operation of low-energy buildings. In this study, 10 design and operation parameters for space-heating systems of two prototypical office buildings in each of three U.S. heating climates are identified and evaluated, using building simulations with EnergyPlus, to determine the most influential parameters and their impacts on variations of space-heating energy use. The influence of annual weather change on space-heating energy is also investigated using 30-year actual weather data. The simulated space-heating energy use is further benchmarked against those from similar actual office buildings in two U.S. commercial-building databases to better understand the discrepancies between simulated and actual energy use. In summary, variations of both the simulated and actual space-heating energy use of office buildings in all three heating climates can be very large. However these variations are mostly driven by a few influential parameters related to building design and operation. The findings provide insights for building designers, owners, operators, and energy policy makers to make better decisions on energy-efficiency technologies to reduce space-heating energy use for both new and existing buildings.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
NASA NTRS2020

Robotic Specialization in Autonomous Robotic Structural Assembly

Robotic in-space assembly of large space structures is a long-term NASA goal to reduce launch costs and enable larger scale missions. Recently, researchers have proposed using discrete lattice building blocks and co-designed robots to build high-performance, scalable primary structure for various on-orbit and surface applications. These robots would locomote on the lattice and work in teams to build and reconfigure building-blocks into functional structure. However, the most reliable and efficient robotic system architecture, characterized by the number of different robotic 'species' and the allocation of functionality between species, is an open question. To address this problem, we decompose the robotic building-block assembly task into functional primitives and, in simulation, study the performance of the the variety of possible resulting architectures. For a set consisting of five process types (move self, move block, move friend, align bock, fasten block), we describe a method of feature space exploration and ranking based on energy and reliability cost functions. The solution space is enumerated, filtered for unique solutions, and evaluated against energy and reliability cost functions for various simulated build sizes. We find that a 2 species system, dividing the five mentioned process types between one unit cell transport robot and one fastening robot, results in the lowest energy cost system, at some cost to reliability. This system enables fastening functionality to occupy the build front while reducing the need for that functional mass to travel back and forth from a feed station. Because the details of a robot design affect the weighting and final allocation of functionality, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to evaluate the effect of changing mass allocations on architecture performance. Future systems with additional functionalities such as repair, inspection, and others may use this process to analyze and determine alternative robot architectures.

Bernus, Borbala↗
DOE OSTI2023

A Perspective of Decarbonization Pathways in Future Buildings in the United States

The commitment of electrification and decarbonization goals in the United States (U.S.) will significantly change the performance of future buildings. To meet these goals, it is critical to summarize the existing research related to building electrification and decarbonization and discuss future research pathways. This paper provides a perspective on decarbonization pathways of future buildings in the U.S. A critical review of the existing research was conducted, which is divided into three closely linked categories: technologies, economic impacts, and code regulations. Technologies support investments and code regulations while marketing affects the design of building codes and standards. In the meantime, code regulations guide the development of technologies and marketing. Based on the review, future potential research directions for building decarbonization are then discussed. Due to the needs of building decarbonization, future research will be multidisciplinary, conducted at a large geographic scale, and involve a multitude of metrics, which will undoubtedly introduce new challenges. The perspective presented in this paper will provide policy-makers, researchers, building owners, and other stakeholders with a way to understand the impact of electrification and decarbonization of future buildings in the U.S.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2023

Influence of building heat distribution temperatures on the energy performance and sizing of 5th generation district heating and cooling networks

This paper investigates the energy performance and sizing criteria of 5th generation district heating and cooling (5GDHC) networks as a function of the heat distribution temperature in the building systems connected to the district network. An energy simulation model of a 5GDHC network was developed in Modelica for a case study located in Denmark. Calculations were carried out for four different building heating systems. Simulation results show that reducing the heat distribution temperatures from 70 °C to 23 °C leads to around 40% annual electric energy savings (from 10.4 kWh/m 2 to 6.2 kWh/m 2 ) for the operation of the heat pumps. Heat distribution temperatures of 23 °C cause higher water mass flow rates through the network, leading to annual electric energy consumption for the circulation pumps that are almost doubled (from 0.16 kWh/m 2 to 0.3 kWh/m 2 ) compared to the reference case at 70 °C. Furthermore, the paper discusses how the results obtained from the Danish case study can be generalized and applied to other cases using a simplified mathematical approach. In conclusion, it is found that about 1.5% of electric energy savings can be achieved for each temperature degree reduction in the heat distribution system.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Regional Analysis of Building Distributed Energy Costs and CO2 Abatement: A U.S. - China Comparison

The following paper conducts a regional analysis of the U.S. and Chinese buildings? potential for adopting Distributed Energy Resources (DER). The expected economics of DER in 2020-2025 is modeled for a commercial and a multi-family residential building in different climate zones. The optimal building energy economic performance is calculated using the Distributed Energy Resources Customer Adoption Model (DER CAM) which minimizes building energy costs for a typical reference year of operation. Several DER such as combined heat and power (CHP) units, photovoltaics, and battery storage are considered. The results indicate DER have economic and environmental competitiveness potential, especially for commercial buildings in hot and cold climates of both countries. In the U.S., the average expected energy cost savings in commercial buildings from DER CAM?s suggested investments is 17percent, while in Chinese buildings is 12percent. The electricity tariffs structure and prices along with the cost of natural gas, represent important factors in determining adoption of DER, more so than climate. High energy pricing spark spreads lead to increased economic attractiveness of DER. The average emissions reduction in commercial buildings is 19percent in the U.S. as a result of significant investments in PV, whereas in China, it is 20percent and driven by investments in CHP. Keywords: Building Modeling and Simulation, Distributed Energy Resources (DER), Energy Efficiency, Combined Heat and Power (CHP), CO2 emissions 1. Introduction The transition from a centralized and fossil-based energy paradigm towards the decentralization of energy supply and distribution has been a major subject of research over the past two decades. Various concerns have brought the traditional model into question; namely its environmental footprint, its structural inflexibility and inefficiency, and more recently, its inability to maintain acceptable reliability of supply. Under such a troubled setting, distributed energy resources (DER) comprising of small, modular, electrical renewable or fossil-based electricity generation units placed at or near the point of energy consumption, has gained much attention as a viable alternative or addition to the current energy system. In 2010, China consumed about 30percent of its primary energy in the buildings sector, leading the country to pay great attention to DER development and its applications in buildings. During the 11th Five Year Plan (FYP), China has implemented 371 renewable energy building demonstration projects, and 210 photovoltaics (PV) building integration projects. At the end of the 12th FYP, China is targeting renewable energy to provide 10percent of total building energy, and to save 30 metric tons of CO2 equivalents (mtce) of energy with building integrated renewables. China is also planning to implement one thousand natural gas-based distributed cogeneration demonstration projects with energy utilization rates over 70percent in the 12th FYP. All these policy targets require significant DER systems development for building applications. China?s fast urbanization makes building energy efficiency a crucial economic issue; however, only limited studies have been done that examine how to design and select suitable building energy technologies in its different regions. In the U.S., buildings consumed 40percent of the total primary energy in 2010 [1] and it is estimated that about 14 billion m2 of floor space of the existing building stock will be remodeled over the next 30 years. Most building?s renovation work has been on building envelope, lighting and HVAC systems. Although interest has emerged, less attention is being paid to DER for buildings. This context has created opportunities for research, development and progressive deployment of DER, due to its potential to combine the production of power and heat (CHP) near the point of consumption and delivering multiple benefits to customers, such as cost

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Calculating Impacts of Energy Standards on Energy Demand in U.S. Buildings under Uncertainty with an Integrated Assessment Model: Technical Background Data

This report presents data and assumptions employed in an application of PNNL’s Global Change Assessment Model with a newly-developed Monte Carlo analysis capability. The model is used to analyze the impacts of more aggressive U.S. residential and commercial building-energy codes and equipment standards on energy consumption and energy service costs at the state level, explicitly recognizing uncertainty in technology effectiveness and cost, socioeconomics, presence or absence of carbon prices, and climate impacts on energy demand. The report provides a summary of how residential and commercial buildings are modeled, together with assumptions made for the distributions of state–level population, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per worker, efficiency and cost of residential and commercial energy equipment by end use, and efficiency and cost of residential and commercial building shells. The cost and performance of equipment and of building shells are reported separately for current building and equipment efficiency standards and for more aggressive standards. The report also details assumptions concerning future improvements brought about by projected trends in technology.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2012

An In-Depth Look at Ground Source Heat Pumps and Other Electric Loads in Two GreenMax Homes

Building America research team Consortium for Advanced Residential Buildings (CARB) partnered with WPPI Energy to answer key research questions on in-field performance of ground-source heat pumps and lighting, appliance, and miscellaneous loads (LAMELs) through extensive field monitoring at two WPPI GreenMax demonstration homes in Wisconsin. These two test home evaluations provided valuable data on the true in-field performance of various building mechanical systems and LAMELs.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2019

Wall Upgrades for Residential Deep Energy Retrofits: A Literature Review

In the United States, 39% of total energy consumption comes from the building sector, 20% of which is attributed to residential buildings. New, high-performance homes incorporate a combination of tight building envelopes, mechanical ventilation and efficient components to ensure comfort, adequate airflow and moisture control. These systems work together to create energy efficient homes that employ measures to manage moisture and indoor pollutants. Older homes, built before 1992 when DOE’s Building Energy Codes Program was established represent approximately 68% of building stock in the country, and often have significant air leakage and inadequate insulation. Homes with little to no air sealing or insulation result in heating and cooling losses, which can represent a substantial portion of utility bills. Done correctly, deep energy retrofits (DERs) can significantly improve the energy performance of a home’s thermal envelope, decrease indoor pollutants and increase homeowner comfort. This literature review summarizes current practices for exterior wall retrofits for existing homes, provides an overview of techno-economic approaches to investigate residential wall systems, and discusses thermal and hygrothermal modeling strategies. Accompanying this literature review is a larger effort to identify state-of-the-art technologies for existing wall energy efficiency retrofit systems that can be applied over existing siding and are suitable for the cold/very cold climates.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2022

Long term performance of vacuum insulation panels integrated into building components

Vacuum insulation panels provide much greater resistance to heat transfer than conventional insulation materials, making them ideal for building applications, especially where space is a constraint. Of particular interest is energy retrofits where high insulation values are required with very little or no modifications to existing building envelope elements such as fenestrations and service penetrations. To facilitate the use of vacuum insulation panels (VIPs) in residential and commercial construction, this study investigates the performance of VIPs integrated into polyisocyanurate foam board and vinyl siding after several years of service. Vacuum insulation panels integrated with polyisocyanurate boards were studied in mixed humid and cold climates. The integration of VIPs with vinyl siding was investigated in a mixed humid climate. Periods of service were between two and five years. In all cases, the integrated building components outperformed conventional materials by almost 40 percent during heating and cooling periods. However, the percent reduction in heat gains and losses of the integrated building components decreased with time at a rate between approximately 4% and 10% per year during the service period. In some cases, the rate seems to converge to a steady -state value. Measurements are ongoing to determine if a steady-state value is attained or the panel's insulation value continues to decrease with time. This study is critical in addressing the service life and durability of the building envelope with VIP integrated building components. The effect of these changes will be reviewed in the context of an exterior retrofit.

Aldykiewicz Jr, Antonio↗
DOE OSTI2019

Thermal performance and potential annual energy impact of retrofit thin-glass triple-pane glazing in US residential buildings

Heat transfer through the building envelope and associated air leakage comprise the largest HVAC loads in most climates, and windows, which are known as the weakest link in the thermal envelope, are responsible for about 5 Quads, or approximately 10%, of building energy use. Therefore, windows offer a significant opportunity for building energy savings. High performance windows, such as triple glazing, though comprised of less than 2% of all US window sales in 2016 and has remained stagnant because they typically require a full and expensive redesign of the typical window sash and frame. One potential low incremental cost solution to kick start the market is upgrading the glazing with a thin-glass triple-pane design that does not require modifications to existing frame and sash. Here in this work, we first define the characteristics and performance of current “typical” residential windows through an examination of the National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) Certified Products Directory (CPD). With knowledge of the typical window, we determine the potential thermal performance impact of replacing typical glazing with thin-glass triple-pane glazing. Finally, with an understanding of the potential improvements to traditional performance metrics, such as U-factor, we show the energy savings potential of the thin-triple glazing in place of typical low-e windows in residential buildings is 16% in heating dominated climates such as Minneapolis, MN, 12% in mixed climates such as Washington DC, and 7% in cooling dominated climates such as Houston, TX.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2020

Characterization and Analysis of the Energy-Reporting Accuracy of Connected Devices

Emerging energy-efficient building systems increasingly exhibit greater functionality, often requiring multiple operating modes (e.g. white-tunability for lighting products and data traffic for devices with networked, integrated sensors). This increased functionality makes energy consumption estimates more complex. Given that these functions consume energy, the energy performance of such building systems is dependent on what operating modes they use and how much time they spend in each mode. Devices and systems that can report their own energy consumption mitigate this energy-performance uncertainty. This study explores the energy-reporting accuracy of market-available connected electrical outlets. The study considers two residential-market products (five units each, one outlet per unit) and three commercial-market products (two units each, 18 to 24 outlets per unit) with the ability to report power drawn and/or energy consumed by devices connected to their receptacles. The products were purchased through typical market channels. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) conducted testing in December 2018 at its Connected Lighting Test Bed (CLTB), using a custom-developed test setup and method adapted from industry standards. The setup collected energy-consumption data reported by the outlet devices under test (DUTs) at one-minute intervals and compared that data with measurements taken by a reference meter over a range of test conditions. The residential products reported power draw but not interval or cumulative energy consumption. The commercial products reported both power draw and cumulative energy consumption. Relative reporting error (RRE) was calculated for all measurements, and analysis of the results revealed variations across devices and test conditions. The total number of measurements (50 for each residential product, 60 for each commercial product) offers an appreciable comparison of performance at the make/model level. The average RRE of the residential products derived from reported power draw was -0.02% and -1.20%. The average RRE for two of the three the commercial products derived from reported power draw was worse than those of the residential products (-2.40%, -2.72%, -0.36%). The internal integration of power over time, used to calculate cumulative energy consumption, typically occurs at current and voltage sampling rates much higher than once per minute. This suggests that the average commercial-product RRE derived from reported energy consumption should be very consistent and better than performance based on reported power draw. However, the RRE derived from reported energy consumption varied significantly across the three makes of commercial-market products and was uniformly less accurate than performance based on reported power draw. Subsequent analysis identified a number of root causes for this decrease in performance, most of which were related to reporting resolution. The goals of this study are to generate awareness of building systems capable of reporting their own energy consumption, further interest in the value of energy data for a variety of uses, draw attention to how the accuracy of reported metrics can be characterized, and quantify the performance variation found in marketavailable products. The results of this study and subsequent related work may be relevant to stakeholders in industry-specification and standards-development organizations. The methods this study employs could inform test and measurement procedures and performance classifications for connected outlets, lighting products, and other building systems capable of reporting their own energy consumption. The study concludes with stakeholder recommendations, including the following: • Energy-reporting device and system manufacturers developing products that report energy consumption should characterize the accuracy of reported metrics using a reference meter calibrated by an independent laboratory that was accredited by an ILAC MRA signatory (and whose scope of accreditation explicitly covers energy measurement), and should include this information on product data sheets. • Standards and specification development organizations should develop application-specific performance classifications that end users can understand and relate to their energy-data use needs (e.g., 2% accuracy class for utility streetlight energy billing needs, or 10% accuracy class for ESCO performance verification needs). • Current or potential owners, operators, and specifiers of energy-reporting building systems should rigorously analyze the dependency of current and planned energy-data use cases on accuracy, noting in particular the dependence (or lack thereof) on relative vs. absolute accuracy, and on trueness vs. precision (i.e., repeatability), and should communicate use-case needs to industry standards and specification organizations.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2020

Characterization and Analysis of the Energy-Reporting Accuracy of Connected Devices

Emerging energy-efficient building systems increasingly exhibit greater functionality, often requiring multiple operating modes (e.g. white-tunability for lighting products and data traffic for devices with networked, integrated sensors). This increased functionality makes energy consumption estimates more complex. Given that these functions consume energy, the energy performance of such building systems is dependent on what operating modes they use and how much time they spend in each mode. Devices and systems that can report their own energy consumption mitigate this energy-performance uncertainty. This study explores the energy-reporting accuracy of market-available connected electrical outlets. The study considers two residential-market products (five units each, one outlet per unit) and three commercial-market products (two units each, 18 to 24 outlets per unit) with the ability to report power drawn and/or energy consumed by devices connected to their receptacles. The products were purchased through typical market channels. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) conducted testing in December 2018 at its Connected Lighting Test Bed (CLTB), using a custom-developed test setup and method adapted from industry standards. The setup collected energy-consumption data reported by the outlet devices under test (DUTs) at one-minute intervals and compared that data with measurements taken by a reference meter over a range of test conditions. The residential products reported power draw but not interval or cumulative energy consumption. The commercial products reported both power draw and cumulative energy consumption. Relative reporting error (RRE) was calculated for all measurements, and analysis of the results revealed variations across devices and test conditions. The total number of measurements (50 for each residential product, 60 for each commercial product) offers an appreciable comparison of performance at the make/model level. The average RRE of the residential products derived from reported power draw was -0.02% and -1.20%. The average RRE for two of the three the commercial products derived from reported power draw was worse than those of the residential products (-2.40%, -2.72%, -0.36%). The internal integration of power over time, used to calculate cumulative energy consumption, typically occurs at current and voltage sampling rates much higher than once per minute. This suggests that the average commercial-product RRE derived from reported energy consumption should be very consistent and better than performance based on reported power draw. However, the RRE derived from reported energy consumption varied significantly across the three makes of commercial-market products and was uniformly less accurate than performance based on reported power draw. Subsequent analysis identified a number of root causes for this decrease in performance, most of which were related to reporting resolution. The goals of this study are to generate awareness of building systems capable of reporting their own energy consumption, further interest in the value of energy data for a variety of uses, draw attention to how the accuracy of reported metrics can be characterized, and quantify the performance variation found in marketavailable products. The results of this study and subsequent related work may be relevant to stakeholders in industry-specification and standards-development organizations. The methods this study employs could inform test and measurement procedures and performance classifications for connected outlets, lighting products, and other building systems capable of reporting their own energy consumption. The study concludes with stakeholder recommendations, including the following: • Energy-reporting device and system manufacturers developing products that report energy consumption should characterize the accuracy of reported metrics using a reference meter calibrated by an independent laboratory that was accredited by an ILAC MRA signatory (and whose scope of accreditation explicitly covers energy measurement), and should include this information on product data sheets. • Standards and specification development organizations should develop application-specific performance classifications that end users can understand and relate to their energy-data use needs (e.g., 2% accuracy class for utility streetlight energy billing needs, or 10% accuracy class for ESCO performance verification needs). • Current or potential owners, operators, and specifiers of energy-reporting building systems should rigorously analyze the dependency of current and planned energy-data use cases on accuracy, noting in particular the dependence (or lack thereof) on relative vs. absolute accuracy, and on trueness vs. precision (i.e., repeatability), and should communicate use-case needs to industry standards and specification organizations.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗