DOE’s Building Technologies Office (BTO) released two draft Research and Development Opportunities (RDO) reports to inform BTO’s strategic direction and future investment for early-stage research and development (R&D) in sensors and controls and building energy modeling and to serve as blueprints for the broader community. The reports, developed for the Building Energy Modeling and Sensors and Controls portfolios of BTO's Emerging Technologies program, leveraged stakeholder engagement and detailed technical analysis to describe and tackle the key barriers of building energy modeling and sensors and controls.
BTO has issued two accompanying Requests for Information (RFIs) for each draft report, seeking feedback from key stakeholders by June 3, 2019, prior to final publication of the RDOs later in 2019. The RFIs includes guidance on how to provide feedback that will inform updates to the RDO reports themselves, and ultimately, the strategic direction of the portfolios moving forward.
Sensors and Controls RFI
Building Energy Modeling RFI
The goal of issuing the RFIs is to better understand where sensors and controls and building energy modeling research goals can be refined to reflect market needs and inform related R&D activities.
Sensors and Controls
BTO’s Sensors and Controls program aims to accelerate the transition from simple, reactive controls designed to only meet short-term thermal ventilation needs to optimized, whole-building controls designed to meet both energy-efficiency and occupant comfort objectives. Sensors monitor operating conditions of buildings and building equipment (e.g., temperature, air flow, and daylight levels), device controllers process these measurements, and actuators perform the appropriate actions (e.g., adjust temperature, air flow, light) to maintain desired settings. Next-generation sensors, actuators, and controller technologies minimize preventable energy losses and optimize environmental and equipment parameters through programmable settings.
There are two overarching challenges that limit the opportunity for achieving these goals. First, centralized automation of monitoring and control of building operations is not yet widely adopted. Even when they do exist, full functionality is often not exploited and the control strategy is reactive in nature. This leads to occupant discomfort, equipment damage, and wasted energy. Second, most systems on the market today focus on managing HVAC systems exclusively without integrating and coordinating other building end-uses, such as lighting and plug loads. These conditions result in approaches that are customized in nature with new devices managing their own operation through built-in capabilities and intelligence.
The Sensors and Controls RDO will inform the strategic direction of BTO in addressing these challenges through early-stage and innovative technology solutions that will meet calculated cost targets and energy performance goals. The report is structured into four interrelated priority topic areas:
- Multifunctional wireless sensor networks
- Adaptive and autonomous controls
- Advanced submetering and analytics
- Occupant-centric sensors and controls
Draft Sensors and Controls RDO
Building Energy Modeling R&D Opportunities
Building Energy Modeling (BEM) is a multipurpose tool for building energy efficiency. BTO has been active in the BEM area since the 1970s and has led the development of several significant BEM engines including DOE-2.1, EnergyPlus, and Spawn, along with the OpenStudio software development kit. In addition to developing open-source software, BTO funds activities in testing and validation, data collection, analysis, and dissemination, research, and new applications.
BTO seeks to expand the use and effectiveness of BEM in the design and operation of commercial and residential buildings with the goal of achieving persistent reductions in total and peak energy use. Despite progress in recent years, stakeholders estimate that BEM is used to design only about 20% of new commercial and residential floor area. Use of BEM to support retrofit design is lower, and use of BEM in building operation applications like model-predictive control is even more limited. This report identifies barriers to increased BEM and activities that address these barriers.
The Building Energy Modeling RDO is structured around six topics:
- Value proposition
- Predictive accuracy
- Core modeling capabilities
- Workflow integration and task automation
- Data ecosystem
- Process standardization, credentialing, education, and training