The presentations, news, research summaries, reports, and technology overviews are collected here by focus area and represent the body of work developed by the CBEI partners during the 5-year project period. For additional information on market challenges, approach, and impacts, see each focus area overview.
Widespread deployment of advanced controls and diagnostics in small and medium buildings has been held back by the cost and complexity involved in applying these solutions to individual buildings. CBEI demonstrated data?driven adaptive, self?learning control?oriented models for building HVAC sub?systems and building thermal and envelope dynamics in two medium buildings.
CBEI developed a roadmap to guide technology research. The roadmap is focused on conducting research using existing and state-of-the-art building components and systems in an integrated fashion.
The airflow in enclosed environments is a wall bounded flow, consisting of circulation, flow separation, and thermal plumes in transitional to fully developed turbulence. This study developed a new Detached Eddy Simulation model for indoor airflow using a semi-v2f model, and this model correctly predicted near-wall flows. This study applied the new DES model to a mixed-ventilation and a strong buoyancy-driven flow in rooms.
Fluid Dynamics (FFD) could be potentially used for real-time indoor airflow simulations. This study developed two-dimensional Fast Fluid Dynamics (2D FFD) into three-dimensional Fast Fluid Dynamics (3D FFD) and improved the data structure for handling computational domain with more complex geometry.
A CBEI team of researchers led by Jim Braun of Purdue University has successfully implemented the use of virtual sensors within a low-cost microprocessor.
A virtual sensor system (compatible with the VOLTTRON platform) has been designed and an initial
prototype has been tested.
The session, conducted by Covestro LLC and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, aims at identifying best practice recommendation for energy-efficient, cost-effective retrofit solutions for the interior of existing masonry wall system for commercial buildings. The target market identified is climate zone 4 & 5.
The Pattern Matching Principal Component Analysis (PCA)-based fault detection method developed by CBEI consistently detected faults at a detection rate of 94% with no false alarms.
The integrative design and delivery process includes establishing a new and different governance structure to guide a retrofit construction project, and a collaborative team that works together to make decisions for the design of the buildings.
Buildings consume over 40% of the total energy in the U.S. Over 90% of the buildings are less than 50,000 square feet in size. These buildings currently do not use building automation systems to monitor and control their building systems.
RTUs serve 60% of commercial floor space and account for about 150 Terawatt hours of annual electrical usage (~1.56 Quads of primary energy) and about $15B in electric bills in the US.
Energy efficiency in existing buildings is most often addressed by upgrading outdated lighting equipment and adding efficient equipment to the heating and cooling systems because of low risk and short financial payback.
Implementing a deep energy retrofit, to achieve a 40 to 50% building level efficiency improvement, on a small to medium sized building is not financially viable as a single project. Therefore, creating an energy asset management plan that manages “deep energy retrofit triggers” over time is very important to consider.
CBEI researchers have moved into their new home in November of 2014 at The Navy Yard in Philadelphia. The new headquarters building was designed as a living laboratory for building science researchers to test the real-world application of a number of energy conservation measures.