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Residential air conditioning represents a challenging load for many electric utilities due to poor load factors. This is most pronounced in hot-dry climates where nighttime cooling loads are often minimal due to a lack of humidity, but... more
Residential air conditioning represents a challenging load for many electric utilities due to poor load factors. This is most pronounced in hot-dry climates where nighttime cooling loads are often minimal due to a lack of humidity, but loads in the late afternoon are high. Building mechanical pre-cooling is a strategy that improves the load factor by shifting cooling operation from on-peak hours to off-peak hours. Shifting air conditioner use to off-peak periods provides benefits to utilities and the electric grid, as well as to occupants who can take advantage of time of use electric rates. The paper presents results of EnergyPlus modeling to evaluate pre-cooling in hot-dry climates. Field monitoring results are also presented, obtained from a high performance home which utilizes the slab floor mass as thermal storage. A successful off-peak air conditioning strategy offers the potential for increased efficiency, assured occupant comfort, and a more reliable and robust electrical gr...
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Retrofitted two-speed pump motors were tested at five residential sites located in Edison service area. Timers were set to double filtration times so that the volume of water filtered per day was not decreased. Energy savings ranged from... more
Retrofitted two-speed pump motors were tested at five residential sites located in Edison service area. Timers were set to double filtration times so that the volume of water filtered per day was not decreased. Energy savings ranged from 38% to 65% and no decline in pool water clarity was noted. An owner simple payback of 1.8 years, and a utility benefit-cost ratio (BCR) of 12.4 was calculated for a typical retrofit application.
Some California home builders are combining building integrated solar generation with energy efficient technologies and green design strategies to create a market edge in the current recessed housing market. Through the combination of... more
Some California home builders are combining building integrated solar generation with energy efficient technologies and green design strategies to create a market edge in the current recessed housing market. Through the combination of energy efficiency and on-site energy generation, these homes use significantly less energy than standard code-built homes in California, reducing the impact of development. These builders have established path-breaking marketing strategies to capture maximum value of their efforts, including investing in dynamic, educational showrooms that allow homebuyers to fully understand the potential cost and environmental savings. The result is accelerated home sales, and improved customer satisfaction. The paper describes technologies used to achieve the projected savings, the strategies used to market the advantages the homes have in the marketplace, and sales results demonstrating how these builders are selling compared to their competition.
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Research Interests: Engineering and GuideLine
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A project completed in 2004 titled Alternatives to Compressor Cooling showed that carefully controlled mechanical ventilation cooling can significantly reduce summer peak load and can eliminate the need for vapor compression cooling in... more
A project completed in 2004 titled Alternatives to Compressor Cooling showed that carefully controlled mechanical ventilation cooling can significantly reduce summer peak load and can eliminate the need for vapor compression cooling in areas between the California coastline and the central valley. This technology is most applicable in dry climates where vapor compression cooling is needed only a few days of the year and hot, dry climates that have a dry-bulb temperature range approaching 30°F (17°C), which include much of the West, Southwest, and areas of the Northeast. This paper describes the technology and its development, reviews field tests completed under the California Energy Commission and Department of Energy Building America program sponsorship, and presents computer simulation and monitoring results. For the California houses and climates evaluated, cooling demand was reduced 40% to 79% and cooling energy savings ranged from 0% to 65%.
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The Building America program, funded by the Department of Energy, applies a systems engineering approach to residential construction. The ultimate goal is to improve energy and resource efficiency without increasing the builder’s cost. A... more
The Building America program, funded by the Department of Energy, applies a systems engineering approach to residential construction. The ultimate goal is to improve energy and resource efficiency without increasing the builder’s cost. A key element of the systems engineering approach for most Building America projects has been to improve space conditioning system efficiency by reducing or eliminating duct losses or gains. This paper presents the initial analytical work and preliminary findings from the subsequent field evaluation to quantify the energy benefits of burying ducts under loose fill attic insulation. This research was conducted by the Consortium for Advanced Residential Buildings (CARB), one of five Building America industry teams, An analysis was done to determine the R-value of insulation wrap that conventionally hung ducts would require to achieve an equivalent thermal performance to insulation-buried ducts. These results formed the basis for a credit for buried duct...