Lead Performer: Oak Ridge National Laboratory – Oak Ridge, TN
Industry Partner: Molex – Lisle, IL
DOE Funding: $750,000
Cost Share: $875,000
Project Term: October 1, 2013 – September 30, 2016

Project Objective

Regulating comfort in small buildings could become more efficient and less expensive thanks to an innovative wireless sensor technology being developed by researchers at ORNL. ORNL has established a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Molex, a premier international electronics manufacturer, to make the low-cost wireless sensors commercially available. The objective of the CRADA is to achieve greater than an order of magnitude in cost reduction and provide market access to this exciting new technology.

Energy-consuming systems such as heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) units in buildings are under-, or poorly, controlled, causing them to waste energy. Buildings could increase their energy efficiency if control systems had access to additional information. HVAC, lighting, and other systems would benefit from additional data such as outside air and room temperature, humidity, light level, occupancy, and pollutant levels but currently, collecting this information is cost-prohibitive, whether the information is gathered by inexpensive conventional sensors that must be wired, or by using today’s expensive $150–$300 per node wireless sensors.

ORNL’s new wireless sensor platform could reduce costs to $1–$10 per node by leveraging advanced manufacturing techniques such as additive roll-to-roll manufacturing. If successful the advanced manufacturing processes will enable electronics such as circuits, sensors, antennae, photovoltaic cells (or other energy harvesting devices), and batteries to be printed on flexible plastic substrates (base materials). The self-powering, long-life nodes can be installed without wires using a peel-and-stick adhesive backing.

The ultra-low power smart sensors collect and send data to a receiver, which can capture data from many different peel-and-stick nodes and provide information to the energy-consuming system. The more information received, the better the building’s energy management. Both new construction and retrofitted buildings can benefit from ORNL’s smart sensors.

Contacts

DOE Technology Manager: Marina Sofos
Lead Performer: Teja Kuruganti, Oak Ridge National Lab

Publications