Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “SAVINGS”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 91 records · Page 5

Quantifying Behavior Driven Energy Savings for Hotels

Hotel facilities present abundant opportunities for energy savings. In the United States, there are around 25,000 hotels that spend on an average of $2,196 on energy costs per room each year. This amounts to about 6% of the total annual hotel operating cost. However, unlike offices, there are limited studies on establishing appropriate baselines and quantifying hotel energy savings given the variety of services and amenities, unpredictable customer behaviors, and the around-the-clock operation hours. In this study, we investigate behavior driven energy savings for three medium-size (around 90,000 sf2) hotels that offer similar services in different climate zones. We first used Department of Energy Asset Scoring Tool to establish baseline models. We then conducted energy saving analysis in EnergyPlus based on a behavior model that defines the upper bound and lower bound of customer and hotel staff behavior. Lastly, we presented a probabilistic energy savings outlook for each hotel. The analysis shows behavior driven energy savings up to 25%. We believe this is the first study to incorporate behavioral factors into energy analysis for hotels. It also demonstrates a procedure to quickly create tailored baselines and identify improvement opportunities for hotels.

Dong, Bing↗

Quantifying Adoption Rates and Energy Savings Over Time for Advanced Manufacturing Technologies

Energy-efficient manufacturing technologies can reduce energy consumption and lower operating costs for an individual manufacturing facility, but increased process complexity and the resulting risk of disruption means that manufacturers may be reluctant to adopt such technologies. In order to quantify potential energy savings at scales larger than a single facility, it is necessary to account for how quickly and how widely the technology will be adopted by manufacturers. This work develops a methodology for estimating energy-efficient manufacturing technology adoption rates using quantitative, objectively measurable technology characteristics, including energetic, economic and technical criteria. Twelve technology characteristics are considered, and each characteristic is assigned an importance weight that reflects its impact on the overall technology adoption rate. Technology characteristic data and importance weights are used to calculate the adoption score, a number between 0 and 1 that represents how quickly the technology is likely to be adopted. The adoption score is then used to estimate parameters for the Bass diffusion curve, which quantifies the change in the number of new technology adopters in a population over time. Finally, energy savings at the sector level are calculated over time by multiplying the number of new technology adopters at each time step with the technology's facility-level energy savings. The proposed methodology will be applied to five state-of-the-art energy-efficient technologies in the carbon fiber composites sector, with technology data obtained from the Department of Energy's 2016 bandwidth study. Because the importance weights used in estimating the Bass curve parameters are subjective, a sensitivity analysis will be performed on the weights to obtain a range of parameters for each technology. The potential energy savings for each technology and the rate at which each technology is adopted in the sector are quantified and used to identify the technologies which offer the greatest cumulative sector-level energy savings over a period of 20 years. Preliminary analysis indicates that relatively simple technologies, such as efficient furnaces, will be adopted more quickly and result in greater cumulative energy savings compared to more complex technologies that require process retrofitting, such as advanced control systems.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

ePROJECT BUILDER: PROMOTING WIDER ADOPTION OF ENERGY SAVINGS PERFORMANCE CONTRACTS THROUGH STANDARDIZATION AND TRANSPARENCY

The United States Federal Government has been conducting guaranteed savings energy savings performance contracts for over 20 years and now relies on ESPC for the majority of its energy efficiency work. Along with a related financed project type, these deals resulted in $4.2 billion of project investment in the five years ending in 2016, a pace that has even accelerated since. Measurement and verification (M&V) on the projects is the key to assuring savings realization and persistence. Perceived as a weakness or burdensome added cost in the early years of the program, M&V has become a strength. All energy conservation measures (ECMs) have some form of measurement – defined as a measured baseline establishment followed by at least one measurement of the main energy-saving parameter taken in the performance period for each ECM. The government’s in-house energy consulting office, the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), now recommends measurement of these “Option A” M&V ECMs throughout the contract term, usually annually. Moreover, a significantly higher percentage of projects are now characterized by more ambitious M&V, including Option B (all parameter measurement) for most generation (including renewable) and some efficiency measures, and more frequent Option C (whole facility utility bill analysis) for “deep retrofit” projects with multiple, interactive ECMs. Coincident with this progress in M&V has been a much greater embracing of ESPC by the federal agencies, resulting in the enormous rate of projects now executed. This paper traces the evolution of M&V in federal ESPC and argues that the heightened credibility of the savings has contributed significantly to the procurement vehicle’s long-term viability. This focus on savings integrity via M&V has been learned over two decades for U.S. federal ESPC, but countries with developing ESPC markets would be wise to emphasize it as their markets emerge, allowing them to avoid some of the “growing pains” experienced in the U.S.

Earni, Shankar↗

Energy Savings Impacts of Airtightness in U.S. Commercial Buildings

Air leakage in commercial buildings in the U.S. accounts for about one quad of energy annually. As the thermal resistance of commercial building envelopes continues to improve, the relative contribution of air leakage to heating and cooling loads is increasing. Several manufacturers have developed advance air barrier technologies and construction practices to reduce the air leakage in buildings. To help in the market penetration of these advance technologies, advances in easy to use tools for determining the impact of air leakage are needed. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the Air Barrier Association of America, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the US-China Clean Energy Research Center for Building Energy Efficiency partnered to develop an online calculator that estimates the potential energy and cost savings in major US, Canadian, and Chinese cities from improvements in airtightness. The calculator estimates the energy and cost savings potential based on the pre and post retrofit air leakage rates for prototype commercial buildings. This report explores extending these savings to determine the national level energy savings potential based on the weightage of commercial building type in different ASHRAE climate zone locations. The base infiltration rate of 1.07 CFM/ft2 was assumed for these calculations and the savings were calculated for three different air infiltration target rates of 0.4 CFM/ft2, 0.25 CFM/ft2, and 0.06 CFM/ft2. The national source energy savings of 238, 283, and 313 TBtu respectively were estimated for these target air infiltration rates.

Bhandari, Mahabir↗

A framework for estimating the energy-saving potential of occupant behaviour improvement

Energy-related occupant behaviour in buildings has demonstrated considerable energy-saving potential. However, the current modelling method of occupant behaviour does not give sufficient considerations on the implementation difficulty of behaviour and provide a holistic map from survey data to various behaviour models. This article proposes a holistic survey-and-simulation-based framework for estimating the energy-saving potential of occupant behaviour improvement. In the framework, seven typical categories of occupant behaviour models are identified based on the survey results. According to the implementation difficulty, the models are integrated into four behaviour styles (baseline, wasteful, moderate and austere) to represent different levels of energy-saving consciousness of occupants. Based on a case study with a nationwide survey in Singapore, there are remarkable energy savings potential if occupant behaviour is improved; the building energy consumption can be reduced by up to 9.5% with the moderate behaviour improvement, and up to 21.0% with the aggressive behaviour improvement. The simulation results accord well with the measured results within a reasonable range of deviation. The framework can be applied to estimate the energy-saving potential of occupant behaviour improvement in a building with affordable cost, and the findings can inform a behaviour improvement programme with effective and efficient measures.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Experimental characterization and potential energy savings of insulated cladding for U.S. residential buildings

This study evaluates a novel insulated cladding composed of foamed cement and vinyl siding that is designed as a retrofit product to enhance thermal performance in U.S. residential buildings. Experimental measurements showed that foamed cement exhibits a thermal conductivity of 0.0334–0.0365 W/m-K (R-value of 4.0–4.3 °F⋅ft 2 ⋅h/BTU), which is significantly higher than that of conventional fiber cement boards. Although mechanical testing confirmed the material’s brittleness and low strength, it also indicated its suitability for nonstructural insulation applications. Water vapor permeability testing demonstrated effective moisture resistance with the polymer coating. To evaluate the insulated cladding’s energy performance, we used the U.S. Department of Energy’s prototype single-family building model and simulated across 50 locations spanning 16 International Energy Conservation Code climate zones. The R-7 (R-value of 7 °F⋅ft 2 ⋅h/BTU per inch) retrofit cladding resulted in heating energy savings up to 275 therms (Fairbanks, AK) and cooling energy savings up to 1,547 kWh (Phoenix, AZ). The energy cost savings varied by region, but the highest annual cost savings ($\$$434/year) were observed in Santa Maria, CA, and the highest annual cost savings percentage (37 %) were noted in Monterey, CA. On a national scale, the insulated retrofit provided an average annual energy cost reduction of 16 %, highlighting the cladding system’s broad applicability and financial viability.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Study of Energy Saving Analysis for Different Industries

This study analyzes the energy consumption and saving performance in the industries in the U.S.A. All energy assessments implemented were for facilities whose annual energy consumptions were less than 9,000,000 kWh (small- and medium-sized industries) that belong to the manufacturing industries with Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes ranging from 2000 to 3999 in addition to SIC codes starting with 49. In this study, assessments are classified based on the SIC codes with recommendations analysis for each classification to get a better idea of what recommendations were suggested in each major industrial sector, knowing that 68 assessments were made, and their SIC ranged from 14 to 49. In addition, this study could be considered as a guide for energy engineers and other personnel involved in the energy assessment process. The information investigated can give a better prediction for composing better energy-demanding industries and minimizing energy consumption. More than 61 energy assessments were conducted for manufacturing facilities and analyzing the data gathered and processed. Through the research, the Fabricated Metal industry achieved the highest average kWh savings and cost savings within the industries studied in this study. According to the average gigajoule (GJ) savings, the fabricated metal industry ranked second within the studied industries. Conversely, Food and Kindred Products achieved the highest GJ energy savings within the studied industries. Overall, lighting, motors, compressors, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) were the most contributing industries in a total of 547 recommendations.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Analysis of DOE's Roof Savings Calculator with Comparison to other Simulation Engines

A web-based Roof Savings Calculator (RSC) has been deployed for the Department of Energy as an industry-consensus tool to help building owners, manufacturers, distributors, contractors and researchers easily run complex roof and attic simulations. This tool employs the latest web technologies and usability design to provide an easy input interface to an annual simulation of hour-by-hour, whole-building performance using the world-class simulation tools DOE-2.1E and AtticSim. Building defaults were assigned based on national averages and can provide estimated annual energy and cost savings after the user selects nothing more than building location. In addition to cool reflective roofs, the RSC tool can simulate multiple roof and attic configurations including different roof slopes, above sheathing ventilation, radiant barriers, low-emittance surfaces, HVAC duct location, duct leakage rates, multiple layers of building materials, ceiling and deck insulation levels, and other parameters. A base case and energy-efficient alternative can be compared side-by-side to generate an energy/cost savings estimate between two buildings. The RSC tool was benchmarked against field data for demonstration homes in Ft. Irwin, CA. However, RSC gives different energy savings estimates than previous cool roof simulation tools so more thorough software and empirical validation proved necessary. This report consolidates much of the preliminary analysis for comparison of RSC s projected energy savings to that from other simulation engines.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Building analytics and monitoring-based commissioning: industry practice, costs, and savings

As building energy and system-level monitoring becomes more common, facility teams are faced with an overwhelming amount of data. This data does not typically lead to insights, corrective actions, and energy savings unless it is stored, organized, analyzed, and prioritized in automated ways. The Smart Energy Analytics Campaign is a public-private sector partnership program focused on supporting commercially available energy management and information systems (EMIS) technology use and monitoring-based commissioning (MBCx) practices. MBCx is an ongoing commissioning process with focus on analyzing large amounts of data on a continuous basis. EMIS tools are used in the MBCx process to organize, present, visualize, and analyze the data. With campaign data from over 400 million square feet (sq. ft.) of installed space, this paper presents the results achieved by owners that are implementing EMIS, along with associated technology costs. The study’s EMIS users that reported savings achieved the median cost savings of $0.19/sq. ft. and 7% annually, with savings shown to increase over time. For 35 portfolio owners, the median base cost to install an EMIS was $0.03/sq. ft., with an annual recurring software cost of $0.02/sq. ft. and an estimated annual labor cost of $0.03/sq. ft. Two types of EMIS systems -- energy information systems and fault detection and diagnostic systems -- are defined in the body of the paper. Of the two, we find that fault detection and diagnostic systems have both higher savings and higher costs. The paper offers a characterization of EMIS products, MBCx services, and trends in the industry.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Rethinking HVAC temperature setpoints in commercial buildings: The potential for zero-cost energy savings and comfort improvement in different climates, Building and Environment

Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems are responsible for a significant share of the energy consumed in commercial buildings. While energy system retrofits have been found to reduce buildings' carbon footprint substantially, these measures are often hindered by financial, regulatory or design constraints. Recent research sheds light on energy management approaches to energy conservation such as energy-efficient settings of HVAC temperature setpoints. While existing case studies confirm the significant energy saving potential of efficient HVAC operation, there is scarcity of studies quantifying energy savings from optimal HVAC temperature setpoints comprehensively, while controlling for important factors, such as guaranteeing tenant thermal comfort levels and the impact of different climate conditions on the results. In this work, we apply simulation-based multi-objective optimization to fine-tune heating and cooling setpoints of large “typical” office buildings with respect to energy consumption and occupant thermal comfort. We apply the framework in seven climate zones across the US in an effort to examine spatial variations in the energy savings potential due to different climate conditions and propose targeted energy-saving strategies and policies. We show that locations with mild climates, such as San Francisco, CA, can realize up to 60% of annual HVAC-related energy savings without compromising the occupants' thermal comfort. This untapped potential to simultaneously improve building performance and occupants’ comfort drives the discussion on revisiting HVAC setpoint configuration standards in commercial buildings, either as part of individual building retrofit planning or as part of energy policy regulations.

Papadopoulos, Sokratis↗

Benefits assessment of cool skin and ventilated cavity skin: Saving energy and mitigating heat and grid stress

This study assessed the energy-saving and climate-adaptive potential of cool skin and ventilated cavity skin facade technologies in Seoul's high-rise apartment buildings. We created weather scenarios for historical, mid-term future, and long-term future conditions using Coordinated Regional Downscaling EXperiment (CORDEX) method. Building energy simulations were conducted on a South Korean high-rise apartment model to evaluate their performance under different weather conditions. The results indicate that cool skin and ventilated cavity skin technologies can save cooling energy during summers but lead to heating energy penalties in winters. Ventilated cavity skin outperforms cool skin, offering better cooling energy savings and reduced heating penalties. Combining both technologies yields the highest overall energy savings, with 7 %, 9 %, and 10 % cooling energy savings for cool skin, ventilated cavity skin, and the combined package, respectively. However, cool skin increases heating energy consumption by 5 %, while ventilated cavity skin has minimal impact on heating energy. These envelope technologies also reduce peak electricity demand by at least 5 %, 8 %, and 9 %, respectively. They contribute to heat stress reduction, enhance resilience, and decrease extreme heat risks for occupants during power outages by at least 18 % under various weather conditions. Considering the prevalence of aging high-rise apartments in South Korea, adopting these envelope renovation strategies can effectively reduce cooling loads, enhance thermal comfort, and boost resilience under future climates, while avoiding costly reconstruction.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Evaluation of energy savings potential of variable refrigerant flow (VRF) from variable air volume (VAV) in the U.S. climate locations

Variable refrigerant flow (VRF) systems are known for their high energy performance and thus can improve energy efficiency both in residential and commercial buildings. The energy savings potential of this system has been demonstrated in several studies by comparing the system performance with conventional HVAC systems such as rooftop variable air volume systems (RTU-VAV) and central chiller and boiler systems. This paper evaluates the performance of VRF and RTU-VAV systems in a simulation environment using widely-accepted whole building energy modeling software, EnergyPlus. A medium office prototype building model, developed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is used to assess the performance of VRF and RTU-VAV systems. Each system is placed in 16 different locations, representing all U.S. climate zones, to evaluate the performance variations. Both models are compliant with the minimum energy code requirements prescribed in ASHRAE standard 90.1-2010 — energy standard for buildings except low-rise residential buildings. Finally, a comparison study between the simulation results of VRF and RTU-VAV models is made to demonstrate energy savings potential of VRF systems. The simulation results show that the VRF systems would save around 15–42% and 18–33% for HVAC site and source energy uses compared to the RTU-VAV systems. In addition, calculated results for annual HVAC cost savings point out that hot and mild climates show higher percentage cost savings for the VRF systems than cold climates mainly due to the differences in electricity and gas use for heating sources.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Comparison of software models for energy savings from cool roofs

For this study, a web-based Roof Savings Calculator (RSC) has been deployed for the United States Department of Energy as an industry-consensus tool to help building owners, manufacturers, distributors, contractors and researchers easily run complex roof and attic simulations. RSC simulates multiple roof and attic technologies for side-by-side comparison including reflective roofs, different roof slopes, above sheathing ventilation, radiant barriers, low-emittance roof surfaces, duct location, duct leakage rates, multiple substrate types, and insulation levels. Annual simulations of hour-by-hour, whole-building performance are used to provide estimated annual energy and cost savings from reduced HVAC use. While RSC reported similar cooling savings to other simulation engines, heating penalty varied significantly. RSC results show reduced cool roofing cost-effectiveness, thus mitigating expected economic incentives for this countermeasure to the urban heat island effect. This paper consolidates comparison of RSC's projected energy savings to other simulation engines including DOE-2.1E, AtticSim, Micropas, and EnergyPlus. Also included are comparisons to previous simulation-based studies, analysis of RSC cooling savings and heating penalties, the role of radiative heat exchange in an attic assembly, and changes made for increased accuracy of the duct model. Finally, radiant heat transfer and duct interaction not previously modeled is considered a major contributor to heating penalties.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

A simulation approach to estimate energy savings potential of occupant behavior measures

Occupant behavior in buildings is a leading factor influencing energy use in buildings. Low-cost behavioral solutions have demonstrated significant potential energy savings. Estimating the behavioral savings potential is important for a more effective design of behavior change interventions, which in turn will support more effective energy-efficiency policies. This study introduces a simulation approach to estimate the energy savings potential of occupant behavior measures. First it defines five typical occupant behavior measures in office buildings, then simulates and analyzes their individual and integrated impact on energy use in buildings. The energy performance of the five behavior measures was evaluated using EnergyPlus simulation for a real office building across four typical U.S. climates and two vintages. The Occupancy Simulator was used to simulate the occupant movement in each zone with inputs from the site survey of the case building. Based on the simulation results, the occupant behavior measures can achieve overall site energy savings as high as 22.9% for individual measures and up to 41.0% for integrated measures. Although energy savings of behavior measures would vary depending upon many factors, the presented simulation approach is robust and can be adopted for other studies aiming to quantify occupant behavior impact on building performance.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Energy savings with outdoor temperature-based smart ventilation control strategies in advanced California homes

We simulated the energy performance of smart ventilation controls based on outdoor temperature in homes located in California climate regions, designed to comply with the 2016 Title 24, Part 6 California Energy Code prescriptive requirements. The smart controls shift ventilation rates in time, but ensure an annual occupant pollutant exposure equal to, or less than, what would be experienced in a home with a constant ventilation rate equal to the whole house target airflow in the ASHRAE Standard 62.2-2016. Annual simulations of previously developed prototype homes with validated ventilation models were conducted via co-simulation of EnergyPlus with CONTAM. Controller performance varied substantially by climate zone, airtightness and house prototype. Smart controls were generally ineffective in Climate Zone 1 (Arcata) due to its lack of a cooling season and low diurnal temperature swings. The most successful smart controls used parameters pre-calculated using an optimization routine. In order to better inform state energy policy, we also determined savings weighted by the amount of new home construction in each climate. The best controls averaged about one-third of ventilation-related energy savings that increased to about 48–55% when weighted. Annual average savings were about 650–700 kWh/year for the best controllers. The vast majority of site energy savings were for heating end-uses (>90% of total savings). Whole house ventilation rates increased between 0% and 42%, with typical increases in the 15–20% range. Finally, the best-performing control strategies shifted ventilation rates seasonally and modulated flows within each season. Peak concentrations during low ventilation times were kept below an exposure level of 3, well below the maximum of 5 required to avoid acute exposure issues.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Probabilistic reliability assessment and case studies for predicted energy savings in residential buildings

This study aims to (1) investigate the key influential parameters (KIPs) in estimating the uncertainty of energy savings using a residential building energy simulation model and (2) perform uncertainty quantification for energy savings for several different scenarios. The proposed methodology was successfully applied to the calculation of uncertainties associated with residential energy retrofits using two test houses designed for pre- and post-retrofit cases. Uncertainties were determined using basic parameters that might be supplied to an energy model and then reevaluated based on an audit of the KIPs identified, resulting in substantially reduced uncertainty. Of four different scenarios, the most uncertain scenario estimated the annual energy savings from the retrofit would be between 18% and 51% at a 95% confidence level, and the least uncertain scenario estimated the annual savings would be between 26% and 40% at a 95% confidence level. The actual measured annual savings from the two test houses was 28%, which shows an agreement with the uncertainty analysis.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

From models to reality: a systematic review on simulated and measured residential heat pump energy savings

High-performance HVAC solutions are central to residential energy management. A substantial share of these are electric, reversible-cycle systems, with heat pumps representing the largest portion of current and near-term adoption. This review synthesizes peer-reviewed and grey literature on residential space heating and cooling heat pumps. The academic literature is dominated by modeling (73.8%), with limited field measurement (13.1%). Grey literature from United States serve as a supplemental resource providing measured savings. Conversions from electric-resistance heating consistently show the largest site energy reductions, while oil/propane baselines yield moderate savings, and gas baseline scenario often deliver small and region-dependent savings. This study cross-checks the grey literature measured data with simulation data filtered from the ResStock dataset. The comparison indicates a discrepancy between simulations and measured data: simulated site EUIs are typically lower than measured EUIs, but percentage energy savings fall in similar ranges, implying simulations capture directional effects while underestimating energy use. Factors associated with variability and model–measurement differences include system characterization and control representation (e.g., backup heat engagement, thermostat/setpoint strategies, commissioning/installation quality), occupant behavior, weather normalization, metering scope, and envelope characterization. This paper also outlines the proposed methodology for comparing simulation and measured data for heat pumps. It emphasizes the metrics used for comparison and units harmonization, building characteristics matching, and compact metadata are needed for simulations to match measured data. The proposed methodology is expected to improve the credibility of simulated savings as measured evidence grows.

Yu, Lili↗

Two trillion gallons: Fuel savings from fuel economy improvements to US light-duty vehicles, 1975–2018

Since 1975, the fuel economy of new light-duty vehicles sold in the U.S. has almost doubled. Fuel economy improvements on laboratory tests gradually became real improvements on the road as newer, more efficient vehicles replaced older less efficient ones. Fleet-wide fuel economy gains produced large fuel savings. In this paper, we show that fuel economy gains measured on laboratory test cycles, adjusted for on-road conditions and weighted by the distribution of vehicles by age and their relative use, closely match estimates by the Federal Highway Administration based primarily on traffic counts and motor fuel tax records. Furthermore, adjusting for the rebound effect of fuel economy on vehicle miles traveled, we estimate the fuel savings, CO 2 emissions reductions and dollars saved on fuel due to fuel economy improvements over the past 43 years. Through the end of 2018, estimated cumulative fuel savings amount to approximately 2 trillion gallons of gasoline. We estimate that roughly one-fifth of the savings can be attributed to gasoline price increases over the period and four-fifths to fuel economy and greenhouse gas (ghg) standards.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗