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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 829 records · Page 46
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Data-driven occupant-behavior analytics for residential buildings

Many advances have been made in building technology to help save energy, but influencing the behavior of the occupants is still necessary to achieve low-energy use targets. One of the most practical ways to influence and change occupant behaviors is through incentives. Developing incentives for energy-saving and quantifying the impact of occupant behaviors are both active areas of research. Here, we propose a data analytics framework for detecting changes in occupant behaviors, which will help build an analytics feedback loop from behavior impact to incentive design. The framework has two major parts. The first forecasts energy consumption for each occupant, while the second determines a probability distribution for changes in energy consumption. The parts are interchangeable with other existing machine learning and statistical methods. A specific instantiation of the framework, using kernel ridge-regression for forecasting and k-means to find an empirical behavior distribution, is described in detail. An HVAC use-case with 5 different incentivized behaviors is used as an example to show that the framework can detect behavior changes induced by incentives. Furthermore, we show that some simpler behavior-change detection methods do not work, further justifying the use of advanced analytics.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2017

Methodology for energy strategy to prescreen the feasibility of Ground Source Heat Pump systems in residential and commercial buildings in the United States

Geothermal resources have potential to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The viability of geothermal heat pumps or ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) is significant as a potential alternative energy source with substantial savings potential. While the prospect of these systems is promising for energy efficiency, careful feasibility analysis is required before implementation. Here, this paper presents the results of evaluation of the application feasibility for GSHPs in buildings across seven climate zones in three United States regions. A comprehensive methodology is developed to measure the integrated feasibility of GSHPs using compiled data for energy use intensity, energy cost and design parameters. Four different feasibility metrics are utilized: ground temperature, outdoor weather condition, energy savings potential, and cost benefits. For each metric, a corresponding feasibility score system is developed. The defined integrated feasibility score classifies the locations into five different feasibility levels ranging from Fair (0–20), Moderate (21–40), Good (41–60), High (61–80), and Very High (81–100). Conclusions show the GSHP feasibility level is High for 3 sites, Good for 8 sites and Moderate for 4 sites. Through the methodology, it is possible to develop a practical energy strategy for more economic and sustainable GSHP systems at an early design stage in the various viewpoints of geometries, climate conditions, operational factors, and energy costs.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2025

Comparative life cycle assessment of a modular cross-laminated timber residential building designed for disassembly and reuse versus traditional wood frame construction

There is a need for affordable housing across the U.S., with high-performance modular and prefabricated buildings providing a logical avenue for meeting some of this demand. However, there is a need to balance high performance construction – including low emissions – with affordability. To provide a proof-of-concept in meeting these goals, the Circular Home is a cross-laminated timber (CLT)-based deconstructible and reconfigurable single-family residence that meets high performance targets in moisture, energy, design, economics, and life cycle assessment (LCA). This study focuses on the LCA, presenting a cradle-to-cradle whole-building life cycle assessment (WBLCA) for the Circular Home and a functionally equivalent Baseline Home constructed with traditional materials and methods. The functional unit is 1 m 2 of gross floor area across 60 years. Revit building information models (BIM) provided material quantities and Tally LCA was utilized for impact data (inclusive of biogenic carbon sequestration), supplemented with manufacturer environmental product declarations (EPDs). The Circular Home outperforms the baseline residence in most measured impact categories, including global warming potential (GWP), producing −2.73 kgCO 2 eq/m 2 in embodied emissions, whereas the modeled baseline has an embodied GWP of 428 kgCO 2 eq/m 2 . The careful material selection and advanced building design optimizes performance, with the Circular Home containing only −0.006 times the embodied emissions and −0.02 times the operational emissions of its traditional counterpart. Finally, the unique contribution of this work is in the environmental impact comparison of a high-performance modular CLT structure that can be affordably scaled and mass produced in a U.S. market, compared to typical single family home construction.

Circularity↗
DOE OSTI2024

Heat pumps for all? Distributions of the costs and benefits of residential air-source heat pumps in the United States

Electrification of fossil-fuel combustion in buildings is a key component of achieving global greenhouse gas emissions targets. We use physics simulations of 550,000 statistically representative households to analyze distributions of the costs and benefits of three air-to-air heat pump performance levels, with and without insulation upgrades, across the diversity of the US housing stock. We find positive greenhouse gas reductions in every US state for all performance levels across five 2022-2038 electric grid scenarios, with full adoption reducing national emissions by 5%-9%. We find that air-to-air heat pumps could be cost effective without subsidies in 59% of households (65 million). However, efficiency is key: whereas minimum-efficiency equipment could increase energy bills in 39% of households, this fraction is only 19% when also upgrading insulation or 5% when using higher-efficiency equipment, though both strategies have higher upfront costs. Such affordability challenges could be addressed through supportive incentives, policy, and innovation.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2023

Machine learning reduces soft costs for residential solar photovoltaics

Further deployment of rooftop solar photovoltaics (PV) hinges on the reduction of soft (non-hardware) costs—now larger and more resistant to reductions than hardware costs. The largest portion of these soft costs is the expenses solar companies incur to acquire new customers. In this study, we demonstrate the value of a shift from significance-based methodologies to prediction-oriented models to better identify PV adopters and reduce soft costs. We employ machine learning to predict PV adopters and non-adopters, and compare its prediction performance with logistic regression, the dominant significance-based method in technology adoption studies. Our results show that machine learning substantially enhances adoption prediction performance: The true positive rate of predicting adopters increased from 66 to 87%, and the true negative rate of predicting non-adopters increased from 75 to 88%. We attribute the enhanced performance to complex variable interactions and nonlinear effects incorporated by machine learning. With more accurate predictions, machine learning is able to reduce customer acquisition costs by 15% ($0.07/Watt) and identify new market opportunities for solar companies to expand and diversify their customer bases. Our research methods and findings provide broader implications for the adoption of similar clean energy technologies and related policy challenges such as market growth and energy inequality.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Control of Behind-the-Meter Resources for Enhancing the Resilience of Residential Buildings

There is increased concern about the impacts of frequent power outages, caused primarily by extreme weather conditions. With increasing behind-the-meter resources such as solar photovoltaics (PV), battery energy storage, and controllable loads, these resources - if properly coordinated - can meet critical loads even during an outage. Resilience building controls can coordinate and operate these resources to enhance the resiliency of buildings supporting critical loads for longer duration. In this paper, we present two resilience building controls: rule-based control and model predictive control (MPC). We simulated various scenarios considering different locations, seasons, outage types, and times of outages to evaluate the performance of resilience controls. The results show that MPC-based control can enhance resilience up to 65% compared to rule-based control. Similarly, PV self-consumption and occupant thermal comfort both increase during outages with MPC-based control.

ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION↗
DOE OSTI2013

Comparison of Advanced Residential Water Heating Technologies in the United States

Gas storage, gas tankless, condensing, electric storage, heat pump, and solar water heaters were simulated in several different climates across the US installed in both conditioned and unconditioned space and subjected to several different draw profiles. While many preexisting models were used, new models of condensing and heat pump water heaters were created specifically for this work.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2013

Ventilation Control of Volatile Organic Compounds in New U.S. Homes: Results of a Controlled Field Study in Nine Residential Units

In order to optimize strategies to remove airborne contaminants in residences, it is necessary to determine how contaminant concentrations respond to changes in the air exchange rate. The impact of air exchange rate on the indoor concentrations of 39 target volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was assessed by measuring air exchange rates and VOC concentrations at three ventilation settings in nine residences. Active sampling methods were used for VOC concentration measurements, and passive perfluorocarbon tracer gas emitters with active sampling were used to determine the overall air exchange rate corresponding to the VOC measurements at each ventilation setting. The concentration levels and emission rates of the target VOCs varied by as much as two orders of magnitude across sites. Aldehyde and terpene compounds were typically the chemical classes with highest concentrations, followed by alkanes, aromatics, and siloxanes. For each home, VOC concentrations tended to decrease as the air exchange rate was increased, however, measurement uncertainty was significant. The indoor concentration was inversely proportional to air exchange rate for most compounds. For a subset of compounds including formaldehyde, however, the indoor concentration exhibited a non-linear dependence on the timescale for air exchange.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2013

Comparison of Advanced Residential Water Heating Technologies in the United States

In this study, gas storage, gas tankless, condensing, electric storage, heat pump, and solar water heaters were simulated in several different climates across the United States, installed in both conditioned and unconditioned space and subjected to several different draw profiles. While many pre-existing models were used, new models of condensing and heat pump water heaters were created specifically for this work. In each case modeled, the whole house was simulated along with the water heater to capture any interactions between the water heater and the space conditioning equipment.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2015

Laboratory Evaluation of Air Flow Measurement Methods for Residential HVAC Returns

This project improved the accuracy of air flow measurements used in commissioning California heating and air conditioning systems in Title 24 (Building and Appliance Efficiency Standards), thereby improving system performance and efficiency of California residences. The research team at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addressed the issue that typical tools used by contractors in the field to test air flows may not be accurate enough to measure return flows used in Title 24 applications. The team developed guidance on performance of current diagnostics as well as a draft test method for use in future evaluations. The series of tests performed measured air flow using a range of techniques and devices. The measured air flows were compared to reference air flow measurements using inline air flow meters built into the test apparatus. The experimental results showed that some devices had reasonable results (typical errors of 5 percent or less) but others had much bigger errors (up to 25 percent).

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗