Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “RESIDENTIAL”

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 1,639 records · Page 91
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2018

Cost-Optimized CCHP Model Developed Using HPDM Meeting Performance Targets

This report documents the equipment design and analysis work to meet the first project milestone (M1). Our industry partner, Emerson Commercial & Residential Solutions recently developed a 3-stage scroll compressor product, able to deliver capacity at three levels without using an inverter. Based on ORNL’s previous cold climate heat pump (CCHP) prototype and the preliminary compressor performance data, the CCHP was redesigned for cost reduction and better performance. The 3-stage compressor, using the middle capacity level to deliver the rated capacity of the heat pump (HP), will replace the previous tandem compressors, using one single-speed compressor to deliver the rated capacity. In this way, it will reduce the compressor footprint to fit in most residential HPs’ chassis. The compressor replacement increases the nominal capacity by 17%. Approximately, 30% cost reduction in the compressor and 17% reduction in the heat exchangers per nominal tonnage can be achieved relative to the prior tandem compressor design. Advanced features using an electronic expansion valve for head pressure control and an Ebm-papst variable-speed, backward-curved indoor blower can be adopted for higher efficiency.The DOE/ORNL Heat Pump Design Model (HPDM) was used to model and redesign the CCHP. Following AHRI 210/240, heating and cooling performance results were predicted at the conditions for certifying a 2-stage CCHP, regarding various design scenarios. The predicted HSPF reaches 12.0, and predicted SEER reaches16.2.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2019

Field Validation of High-R Windows: Market Assessment and Program Plan

This report provides a market assessment for high-performance residential windows based on information gathered from key researchers and industry stakeholders including a series of interviews conducted with high-performance builders in 2019. The report also outlines the U.S. Department of Energy’s planned field validation activities in support of high-R windows and provides the basis for planned field validation approaches. Although the report may be of general interest to those who work in fields pertaining to building energy efficiency and/or market adoption of energy-efficiency measures, the primary intent of this report is to document market characteristics, barriers, and activities related to high-performance residential windows in order to assist with internal program planning.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2019

Distributed Generation Cost-Benefit and Ratemaking Considerations for Idaho

This memo was completed through the Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium (GMLC), a strategic partnership between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the national laboratories to bring together leading experts, technologies, and resources to collaborate on the goal of modernizing the nation’s grid. The GMLC was established as part of the DOE Grid Modernization Initiative to accelerate the development of technology, modeling analysis, tools, and frameworks to help enable grid modernization. Special thanks to DOE project leads, Larry Mansueti and Elaine Ulrich, and the laboratory project lead for this effort, Peter Cappers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). The Idaho Public Utility Commission (IPUC) Staff requested this technical assistance to improve their understanding of the emerging, complex, and consequential issues around distributed energy resource (DER) rate design to help the staff achieve its goal of making a fair, just, and reasonable rate design recommendation with respect to Order 34147 under Case No. IPC-E-17-13. 2 PNNL-28285 In Case No. IPC-E-17-13, Idaho Power requested authorization from the IPUC to establish new rate schedules for residential and small general service customers with on-site generation. The IPUC’s Order No. 34046 of May 9, 2018 authorized Idaho Power to (IPUC 2018a): Close Schedule 84 and create Schedule 6 for residential on-site generators and Schedule 8 for small general service on-site generators; Acknowledge smart inverter technology; Make proposed revisions to interconnection Schedule 72; Open an Idaho Power-specific docket to “to comprehensively study the costs and benefits of on-site generation on Idaho Power’s system, as well as proper rates and rate design, transitional rates, and related issues of compensation for net excess energy provided as a resource” to Idaho Power; File a study with the IPUC “exploring fixed-cost recovery in basic charges and other rate design options prior to its next general rate case.”

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2019

Hot Topic Brief: Emerging Policies for Mobilizing Private Sector Investment into Clean Energy in the Philippines

The Philippines has one of the highest electricity prices for commercial and residential consumers in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region with prices between $0.12 (commercial) and $0.20 (residential) per kilowatt-hour (kWh) (ERIA 2018). Significant reliance on imported coal and diesel is the primary cause of this cost to ratepayers. This 'hot topic brief' details new policies in the Philippines designed to diversify the country's fuel-mix and the opportunities for investments in renewable energy to reduce prices for consumers and industry. This brief focuses on two recent policies: 1. Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS): The RPS establishes mandatory targets for each electric distribution utility--both publicly and privately owned--to procure renewable energy through 2030. 2. Green Energy Option Program (GEOP): The GEOP enables companies to independently procure renewable energy from third-party power producers, which can be used to help meet private sector renewable energy goals, unlock lower electricity costs, and increase energy security.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Sizing Small-Scale Renewable Energy Systems for the Navajo Nation and Rural Communities

The Navajo Nation consists of about 55,000 residential homes spread across 27,000 square miles of trust land in the Southwest region of the United States. The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) reports that approximately 15,000 homes on the reservation do not have electricity due to the high costs of connecting rural homes located miles from utility distribution lines. In order to get these rural homeowners access electricity, NTUA and other Native owned companies are examining small-scale renewable energy systems to provide power for necessary usage such as lighting and refrigeration. The goal of this study is to evaluate the current renewable deployment efforts and provide additional considerations for photovoltaic (PV) systems that will optimize performance and improve efficiency to reduce costs. There are three case studies presented in different locations on the Navajo Nation with varying solar resource and energy load requirements. For each location, an assessment is completed that includes environmental parameters of the site- specific landscape and a system performance analysis of an off-grid residential PV system. The technical process, repeated for each location, demonstrates how the variance and uniqueness of each household can impact the system requirements after optimizations are applied. Therefore, the household variabilities and difference in locations must be considered. The differing results of each case study suggests additional analysis is needed for designing small-scale PV systems that takes a home-land-family specific approach to allow for better efficiency and more flexibility for future solar innovations to be considered for overall cost reductions.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Improving AHU Performance by Minimizing Approach Temperature, Reducing Air Maldistribution, and Efficiently Handling Sensible and Latent Loads (Phase 1 Interim Final Technical Report)

Residential air handling units (AHUs) have stayed the same in form and efficiency for the past 30+ years, with incremental improvements made to address safety, functionality, and energy-efficiency. The purpose of this research in Phase I, Topic 9a: Next Generation Residential Air Handlers, was to improve AHU performance by minimizing heat exchanger (HX) approach temperature, reducing air maldistribution, and developing alternative system configurations which more efficiently handle sensible and latent loads. In this research Optimized Thermal Systems (OTS) developed, modeled, and evaluated multiple alternative system concepts. A dual vapor compression system separate sensible and latent cooling (SSLC) concept was studied to inform work on alternative concepts and to show best-case performance benefit. System concepts included ejector enhanced vapor compression cycles, desiccant assisted dehumidification, dual evaporator SSLC, and alternative AHU HX configurations. A dual vapor compression system showed COP improvement of 20%, however, required additional components, increased unit size, and increased cost. Two types of ejector enhanced vapor compression cycles with dual evaporators improved system COP by 9 to 11%, and reduced AHU losses by as much as 18%, with design changes limited to the AHU, no unit physical size increase, and a moderate increase to system first cost. Desiccant assisted air-conditioning required increased air flow rate resulting in higher fan power and the desiccant wheel increased sensible heat load leading to increased compressor power and reduced system COP. Dual evaporator cycles were found to degrade performance due to increased expansion losses. Optimized single slab HX designs used in place of the traditional A-coil HX led to 44–49% reduction in aluminum, 47–60% less refrigerant charge, and improved HX velocity distribution.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2020

Integrating Health and Energy Efficiency in Multi-Family Buildings

The intersection between health and the built environment has long been known. Since the 18 th century, public health officials have been targeting building issues, such as crowding, poor sanitation, and inadequate ventilation in efforts to reduce infectious diseases and fire hazards. More recently, federal agencies, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HUD, and the DOE have been working to reduce or eliminate indoor building factors that are known to have adverse health impacts on Americans, including reducing lead in housing and indoor air pollution that causes respiratory disease, and ensuring access to adequate heating, cooling, and moisture control. PNNL, in support of FEMP’s HBI, undertook a review of literature and existing best practices to identify current activities and research on the intersection between traditional energy-efficiency measures and occupant health within multi-family buildings. While the HBI methodology has focused on traditional office building spaces, it is now expanding into additional building use types. This overview explores some of the most impactful resources to help property owners and managers understand more about multi-family residential buildings that are both healthy and energy efficient. The federal government provides direct oversight and operation across several types of multi-family residential housing, including dormitories, barracks, and senior community living centers.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2020

Measured Performance of Over the Range Microwave Range Hoods

The California residential building code requires kitchen exhaust ventilation to protect indoor air quality. The requirement can be met with a kitchen exhaust fan or a range hood that conforms to airflow and sound specifications based on certified, standard test results. Appliances that integrate an exhaust fan with an over the range microwave (OTRs) are popular for their space saving utility; but for years there were none with the certified performance data required for building code compliance. This project, initiated during that period, aimed to evaluate OTR models found in new California homes and compare their performance to range hoods that minimally met code requirements. The study aimed to expand on limited information available about OTR performance with a particular focus on measuring the fraction of cooktop-generated air pollutants that are captured and removed by the exhaust devices, a parameter called “capture efficiency”. Airflow and capture efficiency (CE) were measured in a simulated kitchen in Berkeley Lab’s FLEXLAB facility. Airflows were measured using several variations of a balanced-pressure flow method (Walker et al. 2001) including a protocol that had been used in the California Healthy Efficient New Gas Homes (HENGH) field study. Measurements were made for six OTRs observed in the field study, including three with certified test results (published after the start of this project) for airflow and sound. Measurements were also made on two standard range hoods with comparable airflows and costs to the OTRs, when accounting for the microwave functionality. CE was measured using the CO 2 emitted from burners while heating pots of water (POW) as a tracer and calculating the ratio of added CO 2 in the exhaust flow over the total CO 2 generated from burning fuel. Results show that OTRs generally met the California code requirements for airflow, which are the same as those of the residential ventilation standard of ASHRAE. It was determined that the field protocol used in HENGH study homes was biased low by ~14% on average. The CE performance of OTRs tested in this study were consistent with those tested under controlled conditions in prior studies, showing CE increasing with airflow and being higher for emissions occurring at the back cooktop burner(s) compared with front burner emissions. The measured CE covered a range of 40% to 85% for the front burners and 60% to 100% for the back burners. The relationship of CE to airflow for OTRs was within the range of those found for standard range hoods in this study and prior studies, with the key caveat that OTRs appear to have more consistent CE performance for emissions on the front burner.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2020

Austin Sustainable and Holistic Integration of Energy Storage and Solar PV [Austin SHINES]. Final Report, Version 2

The Austin SHINES project and solution is a software management platform, for an electric grid with a high penetration of dispersed photovoltaic (PV) solar generation sites, which maintains the traditional power quality and reliability associated with grid service. This project developed and deployed the platform as a Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS), engaging multiple advanced controls, to evaluate operation and optimization of a fleet of diverse DER assets, installed at several locations among Austin Energy’s customers and distribution system. The project also produced a methodology to create a replicable DERMS template, adaptable to other regions and market structures. Last, Austin SHINES aimed to demonstrate the solution’s methodology would enable the DER grid ecosystem to serve load at a technical cost (System Levelized Cost of Electricity, or System LCOE) of less than the U.S. Department of Energy SHINES program metric of $0.14/kWh, in a defined boundary, while enabling a high penetration of distributed PV. Research was categorized in 6 reports (Final Deliverables = FD) listed below, with titles and descriptions indicating which area of understanding was investigated: FD-1: System Levelized Cost of Electricity (System LCOE) Methodology The creation and use of the System LCOE to Serve Load metric that encompasses the holistic, system-level costs and benefits of all resources, and enables them to be evaluated based on their ability to support an efficient and low-cost integrated grid ecosystem. FD-2: Software Platform Product Description The creation of new DER control methodologies deployable within a utility-grade software platform that enable DER's to maximize their benefit within a grid, that is capable of serving load enabling a high penetration of distributed PV generation. FD-3: Optimal Design Methodology Optimal design methodologies for individual DER installations that enable utilities to determine the optimal combinations and sizing for individual DER sites. FD-4: Austin SHINES Ownership and Operation Models for DER System Performance A comparison of multiple DER aggregation and ownership methodologies including direct utility control, third-party aggregator, and autonomous. FD-5: Economic Modeling & Optimization A comparison of multiple DER technology mixes and configurations within the distribution system, providing insight into an optimal blend of technologies that best enable the distribution system to serve load at the lowest cost at high penetrations of solar. FD-6: Fielded Assets Deployed DER assets within the Austin Energy SHINES circuits. Austin SHINES provided an opening for state-of-the-art technology products to be deployed, providing a rich opportunity for improving how each of the products perform as stand-alone products, and in concert with other complementary products. The Austin SHINES project comprised of two key metrics for System LCOE: SystemLCOE_SHINES<$0.14/kWh Modeled ΔSystemLCOE_SHINES/ΔSystemLCOE_Base≥20% at same solar penetration The System LCOE calculation uses the costs of the utility-owned infrastructure as it exists today, the cost of the DERs that exist in the system today, and the cost of the purchase of energy from ERCOT wholesale markets over the course of the calendar year. All costs are on an annualized basis. The capital and operating costs are derived from the rate case, which produces a yearly cost. The net cost of energy and services imported to the system is integrated over the test year, as is the load served and solar penetration. The first metric was easily achieved by every scenario considered. The goal was set when the Department of Energy’s SHINES Funding Opportunity Announcement was written in 2015 and was a more difficult target at the time. Due mostly to rapidly declining costs for DERs and the significant decrease in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) energy market prices, which results in lower net cost of energy purchases, the System LCOE is well below this target for all scenarios considered. A fleet of DERs can assume different mixtures, each of which serves the load at a different LCOE. The optimal mixture of DERs serves load at the smallest System LCOE. The second metric (hereinafter %delta metric) asks that the holistic DERMS controls reduce the incremental cost above the baseline of going to a high solar penetration future by at least 20% as compared to the case of a DER deployment with no sophisticated controls (autonomous). Many comparison sets were created throughout this project. Physical technology was installed for informing utility engineering and testing several types of operational control schemes, through the DERMS. The types of operational control which were compared for valuation of the System LCOE Metric were: Holistic control = using the full suite of the DERMS platform to decide and optimize how/why the systems operate depending on weather, market, and reliability signal input. Autonomous control = a local mode at the asset site, wherein a schedule operates the asset, with visibility into performance only No control = the baseline for comparing value against the other two types of control The types of ownership control included: Direct Utility control = the utility dispatches a signal to each asset Third-Party Aggregator = a third party aggregates a fleet of assets and the utility dispatches one signal for all Autonomous = a local mode is set for operation at the asset site, wherein a schedule operates the asset, with visibility into performance only The types of control methodologies deployable within a utility-grade software platform included: Utility Peak Load Reduction = Lower transmission cost obligation Day-Ahead Energy Arbitrage = Realize economic value through price differential Real-Time Price Dispatch = Realize economic value from real-time price spikes Voltage support = Reduce losses and increase solar generation Distribution Congestion Management = Increase local grid reliability Demand Charge Reduction = Lower customer bills and realize system benefit The fielded assets deployed for the project were: Utility Scale Kingsbery Energy Storage System: 1.5 MW / 3 MWh Li-Ion battery storage Mueller Energy Storage System: 1.75 MW / 3.2 MWh Li-Ion battery storage, 7 Energy Storage Units (250 kW each) La Loma Community Solar: 2.6 MW Commercial Scale Aggregated storage installations at 3 sites, with existing solar (300+ kW): One 18 kW / 36 kWh Li-Ion battery storage Two 72 kW / 144 kWh Li-Ion battery storage Residential Scale Aggregated storage installations: -Six stationary battery storage systems (10 kWh each) at homes with existing solar -One Electric Vehicle installed as Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) Utility-Controlled Solar via Smart Inverters at 12 homes Autonomously-Controlled Smart Inverters at 6 homes Over the course of the project, Austin SHINES undertook installing more than 3 MW of distributed battery energy storage, smart PV inverters, a DER control platform, and other enabling technologies utilizing customer and utility locations and aggregation models. All of these resources were to be integrated and optimized at the utility level. DER assets and control methodologies were designed to achieve a credible pathway to a System LCOE for energy delivered to load of $0.14//kWh or less by 2020, while maximizing distributed solar generation and maintaining acceptable standards of power quality. The project also established a template for other regions to follow, to maximize the adoption of distributed solar PV in support of an economic and efficient grid. In total, the Austin SHINES project added value to the DER subject area in each layer of integration. From utility, to commercial to residential scales, the sheer hierarchy of communication and coordination was a significant accomplishment in addition to learnings from what these communications revealed was unique to each. Economically, the most effective method demonstrated was the criticality of planning phases. Contingencies and multiple projection scenarios helped guide the project to deploy optimal design as close as feasible, in real world conditions. The project and reports will serve public benefit by outlining specific areas of DER strategy and installation where many stakeholders and needs can be addressed with improved efficiency. Overall, communities and utilities should use the results to guide the increasing options available for powering the grid with DER, renewables, and carbon considerate energy.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Technology Development and Field Monitoring in nZEB - US Country report IEA HPT Annex 49 Task 3

The International Energy Agency (IEA) Heat Pumping Technologies (HPT) Annex 49, “Design and Integration of Heat Pumps for Nearly Zero Energy Buildings,” deals with the application of heat pumps (HPs) as a core component of the HVAC system for nearly or net-zero energy buildings. This report covers the Task 3 activities of the US team. Three institutions are involved on the US team and have worked on the following projects. 1) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) summarized development activities since the conclusion of IEA HPT Annex 40 for several integrated HP (IHP) systems - electric ground-source IHP and air-source IHP versions and engine-driven AS-IHP version. 2) The University of Maryland partnered with ORNL and Blue Bear Management to develop a personal cooling device called RoCo that can provide personalized conditioned air to occupants in inadequately or unconditioned environments. With RoCo, building facility management can elevate the HVAC thermostat settings without compromising occupants’ thermal comfort. Researchers have found that a 4°F increase in thermostat settings can save 12–30% energy savings. Therefore, RoCo is a promising technology that can help reduce building energy consumption and facilitate achievement of net-zero energy building performance. 3) The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is working on a field study effort on the NIST Net-Zero Energy Residential Test Facility. Two air-source split-system HPs were installed in a residential, net-zero energy home that was constructed as a laboratory on the NIST campus in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The first HP was a two-stage, 7 kW (2 ton), 15.8 seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER), 9.05 heating seasonal performance factor (HSPF) conventionally ducted system; the second HP was a variable-speed, 10.6 kW (3 ton), 14 SEER, 8.35 HSPF, high-velocity ducted system. These two systems operated side by side, using separate supply ducts and a common return duct, on a weekly alternating schedule to condition the home that was operated with very consistent simulated thermal loads. The team wanted to determine whether the high-velocity system could provide comparable energy-use efficiency to the conventional system. The results of this study showed that it did meet the required loads and had slightly greater efficiency; the average cooling coefficient of performance (COP) was (0.40 ± 0.11) higher, and the average heating COP was statistically equal. A new firmware was provided at the end of the heating season that greatly improved the performance of the high-velocity system; its average heating COP went from (1.8 ± 0.9) to (2.5 ± 1.1) at a 95% confidence level. The new firmware heating COP averaged (1.05 ± 0.23) higher than the old firmware over the same outdoor temperatures. The defrost performance is very different for these two systems, yet they consumed equivalent energy per HDD. The conventional system uses a timed-initiate, temperature-terminate algorithm with auxiliary electric resistive heating, whereas the high-velocity system uses calculated evaporator parameters with a hot-gas bypass before a full reverse-cycle defrost with no supplementary resistive heat.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2019

Incentive-Based Control and Coordination of Distributed Energy Resources. Final Report

The rapid growth of low-inertia renewable energy resources represents an immense opportunity for the U.S. to minimize its carbon footprint, while presenting a challenge for system operators as traditional “spinning” generation resources are displaced. This transformation requires solutions to robustly and cost-effectively manage dynamic changes on the grid while ensuring quality of service. There is growing recognition that distributed energy resources (DERs – loads, distributed generation, storage, electric vehicles, etc.) represent a great potential to perform this function. This report details a scalable hierarchical control strategy for coordinating thousands of heterogeneous DERs in order to provide three ancillary gird services: 1) frequency response, a rapid (within 2 seconds) service used to maintain the grid at 60 Hz; 2) regulation response, a larger response used to balance on-going differences in supply and demand on the grid; and, 3) ramping reserve, used to bring on capacity to replace lost generation. The developed control architecture consists of 1) a Distribution Reliability Coordinator (DRC), 2) aggregator controllers, and finally, 3) DER controllers. The DRC coordinates all the flexible loads and distributed energy resources on the distribution system and bids the aggregate flexibility into the wholesale market. The DRC also performs resource allocation (deciding how the flexible devices on the distribution system will be dispatched) to meet the requirements for each of the three ancillary services. The aggregators control a collection of devices that are geographically co-located and provide a platform to aggregate their flexibility and mitigate uncertainty associated with a single flexible load by managing a large aggregation of similar loads (so that any stochastic effects average out). Finally, DER controllers (for example, thermostats for air conditioners, chargers for electric vehicles) adjust the power consumption of individual devices to ensure accurate and reliable delivery of the requested grid services. Evaluation and validation of this approach was conducted with a mixture of simulation and hardware testing for a range of DERs in residential (air conditioners and water heaters), commercial HVAC (ventilation fans and central chiller plants), and micro-grids (battery energy storage, solar PV etc.). This culminated in DER hardware and simulation models operating in conjunction with grid simulations as part of a large scale federated test-bed demonstration. Simulations of over 10,000 controllable residential devices (a combination of air conditioners, water heaters, batteries, and electric vehicles) demonstrated that this advanced control approach could simultaneously meet all three grid services. Furthermore, hardware-in-the-loop testing was performed with operational micro-grid and commercial building HVAC equipment. The micro-grid equipment (representing PV, battery storage, and back-up generators) demonstrated the ability to meet all frequency response requirements (except ramping time). The commercial building HVAC ventilation equipment successfully provided the regulating response service. An Industry Advisory Board (IAB) was formed and engaged throughout the project to get feed-back on project risks and potential commercialization barriers. Their input was invaluable in identify key risks stemming from regulatory and market access challenges, financial risks from under-performance, and competitive threats from utility-scale solutions such as integrated storage. A phased commercialization plan was developed that addresses continued risk reduction (value proposition refinement and performance uncertainty assessments), piloting through field demonstrations with key stakeholders, and finally, deployment as an emerging standard for DER control.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2021

U.S. Industrial and Commercial Motor System Market Assessment Report Volume 1: Characteristics of the Installed Base

Motor systems are an integral part of our industrial and commercial facilities. They provide the motive force behind the fans, pumps, compressors, chillers, and conveyors in these facilities. Given their centrality to any facility’s operations, they are a critical energy end use to understand, particularly when developing technologies and policies to meet sustainability goals, improve productivity, and enhance resilience. In the late 1990s, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) conducted two seminal studies to better understand the installed stock and energy savings opportunities of industrial and commercial motor systems. In the industrial sector, The United States Industrial Electric Motor Systems Market Opportunities Assessment used primary data collected through onsite assessments and led to a greater understanding of the installed base of motor systems, their characteristics, and the opportunities for energy savings (U.S. Department of Energy, 2002). Notable findings included the following: Industrial motor systems consumed 679 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 1994, representing 23 percent of U.S. electricity consumption. Cost-effective energy efficiency measures could result in 62-104 billion kWh of energy savings annually. Sixty-two percent of the energy savings potential was from fan, pump, and compressor end use equipment. Nearly half of motor system electricity consumption was attributable to approximately 3,500 facilities, or 1.5 percent of U.S. manufacturing facilities. Opportunities for Energy Savings in the Residential and Commercial Sectors with High Efficiency Electric Motors provided an evaluation of the installed stock of motor driven equipment in U.S. commercial and residential buildings and opportunities for utilization of high efficiency motors and variable speed technologies (Arthur D. Little, 1999). Notable findings included the following: Commercial motor systems consumed 343 billion kWh in 1995, with refrigeration and space conditioning constituting 93 percent of the total. Cost-effective energy efficiency measures could result in 51 billion kWh of energy savings annually. Due in no small part to these seminal studies, motor system technologies and usage characteristics have changed drastically since the late 1990s. Greater awareness of cost-effective strategies for reducing motor system electricity consumption have been developed and deployed. This includes several software tools, literature, and utility and government programs promoting energy efficiency improvements in motor driven systems. Additionally, several rounds of energy efficiency standards have been enacted, resulting in improved installed motor efficiency. The cost of variable speed drives has dropped substantially, and combined with utility rebate programs, has led to their greater adoption. Further, since these results were published, the U.S. manufacturing sector has undergone a massive transformation. Due to global competition, some sectors have relocated operations overseas. Others have brought operations onshore to avail low cost and abundant natural gas. Additionally, automation and robotics have pervaded the entire sector. Consequently, these two reports likely do not represent the current state of motor driven systems in U.S. industrial and commercial facilities. As cited in recent studies, the lack of current information on motor system electricity consumption and use characteristics limits the ability to conduct analysis on energy savings potential, develop technologies to address energy and productivity gaps, and develop programs to promote energy efficiency practices and technologies for motor systems (International Energy Agency, 2007; UNIDO, 2010; McKane and Hasanbeigi, 2011; Waide and Brunner, 2011). Specifically, the lack of information affects a range of stakeholders: Governments must rely on outdated information when setting research agendas, developing policies, and designing energy efficiency programs and offerings. Utilities and energy efficiency programs cannot identify the current market needs or potential impact when designing rebate and energy efficiency programs. Electric grid planners cannot identify motor system usage characteristics when developing plans to support the resilience of the electric grid. Manufacturers of motors, motor driven equipment, and drives are hampered when developing technologies to meet the needs of their market. Motor system end users are limited in their ability to identify energy saving opportunities within their own facilities because they do not have reliable benchmark information. In response to the lack of current information and analysis on industrial and commercial motor systems, the DOE initiated an update to these two studies. Launched in 2016 and led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), the Motor System Market Assessment (MSMA) provides an updated, more comprehensive assessment of the installed stock of motor systems in both the industrial and commercial sectors, a review of the supply chains supporting motor and drives in the U.S., and the performance improvement opportunity available from using best available technologies and maintenance and operation practices. The outcomes of the MSMA are documented in three U.S. Industrial and Commercial Motor System Market Assessment reports, with this report being the first listed: 1. Volume 1: Characteristics of the Installed Base (this report) documents the findings on the installed base of motor systems in the U.S. industrial and commercial sectors. Quantification of energy savings potential is not documented in this report but in Volume 3. 2. Volume 2: Motors and Drives Supply Chain Review reviews the state of supply chains for motors and drives installed in U.S. industrial and commercial facilities, focusing on advanced motor and drive technologies and their constituent materials. 3. Volume 3: Energy Savings Opportunity analyzes the energy performance improvement opportunity for the installed base of U.S. industrial and commercial motor systems. This report has been prepared as a reference for motor system stakeholders. It provides factual information as could be best determined by the assessment results and avoids speculating on any findings.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2021

U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System and Energy Storage Cost Benchmark: Q1 2020 [PowerPoint]

NREL has been modeling U.S. photovoltaic (PV) system costs since 2009. This report benchmarks costs of U.S. solar PV for residential, commercial, and utility-scale systems, with and without storage, built in the first quarter of 2020 (Q1 2020). Our methodology includes bottom-up accounting for all system and project-development costs incurred when installing residential, commercial, and utility-scale systems, and it models the capital costs for such systems.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Evaluation of Exterior Shades at PNNL Lab Homes and Occupied Field Sites (Final Report)

In residential applications, heat transfer through windows accounts for a significant portion of a home’s cooling load. Exterior shades are window attachments that can be applied on the exterior-side of windows in a home. Exterior shades can reduce solar heat gain, reduce glare through a window, and improve comfort in the home. To assess the performance of residential exterior shades, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Building Technologies Office (BTO) commissioned a series of field studies for exterior fabric shades to be performed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) during the cooling seasons of 2019 and 2020. This report describes the experimental setup and results of these exterior shade field studies. PNNL, in collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), evaluated exterior shades at the PNNL Lab Homes and three occupied field sites in Richland, Washington. At the Lab Homes, the energy performance of exterior shades was evaluated in a controlled side-by-side environment. At the occupied field sites, exterior shades were characterized by measuring shade usage, documenting installation practices, and surveying customer perspectives.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2019

Grid Modernization: Metrics Analysis (GMLC1.1) - Affordability (Reference Document, Volume 6)

The GMLC Metric Team: 1) Identified important, but often overlooked, affordability metrics that measure the impacts of electricity costs on residential customers (customer cost burden, affordability gap, and affordability headcount gap); 2) Created a public-facing website for the residential sector that compiles publicly available data and displays affordability metrics at both the state and county level; and 3) demonstrated the use of the metrics and website for three remote village utilities in Alaska and a major electricity utility in California, Southern California Edison (SCE).

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

Impacts of Model Building Energy Codes – Interim Update

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Energy Codes Program (BECP) periodically evaluates state and national impacts associated with energy codes in residential and commercial buildings. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), funded by DOE, assessed the prospective impacts of national model building energy codes from 2010 through 2040. The model codes of interest in this report are the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) for residential buildings and ASHRAE Standard 90.1 for commercial buildings. This report describes the methodology used for the assessment and presents the impacts in terms of energy savings, consumer cost savings, and reduced CO 2 emissions at the state and national levels.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

Perform Life Cycle Energy and GHG Emission Analysis, Select Candidate Refrigerant(s), Developing Heat Pump by Using Low-GWP Refrigerants and 5 mm Diameter Tubes

Reducing environmental impacts from the energy conversion systems has been an important research topic due to recent severe global climate changes. In residential buildings, the space heating and cooling are main energy consumers, which are relying on vapor compression based heat pumps. To mitigate the environmental impacts of residential systems, the heat pumps using low-GWP refrigerants and 5mm-tube heat exchangers are proposed to replace the conventional 9 mm or 7 mm tube heat exchangers. This research uses a simulation-based design method to optimize the refrigerant circuitries of a 5-ton low-GWP refrigerant heat pumps whose indoor and outdoor heat exchangers adopt 5 mm tubes. Heat pump systems using four commercially available low-GWP refrigerants (R454A, R454C, ARM20A and ARM20B) are optimized and compared with the baseline R410A system. The results indicate that directly replacing 9 mm tubes into 5mm tubes in the baseline systems induces heat pump performance degradation; by optimizing the 5 mm tube heat pumps with added tube rows, the system refrigerant charge is reduced up to 33% compared with the baseline; the optimized low-GWP 5 mm tube heat pumps offer the same or higher performance under both cooling and heating mode; that under cooling mode, the EER improvement is up to 10.7% and under heating mode the COP improvement is up to 3.4%; and a smart flow control device to maintain counter-flow circuitry pattern on both operating modes can improve the heating performance of 5 mm tube optimized system by up to 3.0%. In an effort to better understand the environmental impacts of these systems, life cycle climate performance (LCCP) evaluation method is used to assess the baseline and optimized systems. LCCP considers the direct and indirect emissions of the system over the course of its lifetime from manufacturing to disposal. Our analyses indicate that the optimized systems using 5mm tubes and low-GWP refrigerants can reduce life-cycle CO 2 emission significantly. And improving system efficiency is the most effective way to reduce the emission of low-GWP refrigerant systems. This report shows that using 5 mm diameter tubes in heat exchangers is a feasible approach to develop heat pumps with low-GWP refrigerants. Using the proposed design approach can yield higher system efficiency with lower environmental impact.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Cost targets to achieve commercially viable thermal storage in buildings

To mitigate the variation in demand on the electric grid, thermal energy storage (TES) is an alternative to electric batteries or installing new peaking power plants. Stakeholders and policy makers across the United States have expressed interests in promoting TES, as demonstrated by the US Department of Energy’s Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings program and the efforts of various state legislatures. However, the cost value provided by TES are unclear. If reliable cost benefits were determined, stakeholders would have a clearer picture of the financial returns that can be gained from their investment in TES. In this report, EnergyPlus was used to perform whole-building simulations for two residential buildings in Indianapolis and Atlanta. The HVAC system in both buildings were equipped with phase change material TES. The TES tank was charged in off-peak hours and discharged in peak hours to perform load shifting. First, the economic value implied by existing time-of-use (TOU) rates offered by utility companies was analyzed via whole-building simulation. Second, existing demand reduction (DR) incentives sourced from 3 different electrical grid administrators (i.e., California, Texas, and New England region) were surveyed to determine their implied value. Lastly, the economic value implied by different types of deferred peak power plants were reviewed. The full value of TES to the entire society consists of value to the utility, OEMs, facility installers, and other stakeholders. This report focuses on the value to the utility with emphasis on the deferred capital of peak power plant. The value from the deferred capital of peak power plant is manifested to the customer in the form of demand reduction program and Time-of-Use utility rate program. In this report, an initial proxy of the value of TES is made by assuming the deferred capital cost of power plant is the full value to reduce peak demand. Three levels of financial value of TES systems were assessed. Two are currently available to some residential customers: (1) the benefit from TOU pricing alone and (2) the benefit from TOU pricing in combination with DR incentive programs. The third level was computed as the full cost of deferred capital cost of peaking power plants. This represents the potential value that could be gained by the utilities or conceivably be offered to consumers.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗