Integrated Connected Homes

Lead Performer: Oak Ridge National Laboratory – Oak Ridge, TN
Partners:
-- Emerson – St. Louis, MO
-- Southern Company – Atlanta, GA
-- SkyCentrics – San Francisco, CA
-- Electric Power Research Institute – Palo Alto, CA
-- A.O. Smith – Milwaukee, WI
-- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory – Richland, WA
-- National Association of Realtors – Chicago, IL
-- Haier – Wayne, NJ
DOE Total Funding: $3,000,000
Cost Share: $2,000,000
Project Term: March 1, 2016 – February 28, 2019
Funding Opportunity: Lab Award

Project Objective

Manufacturers of home appliances and related building products are increasing connectivity options for consumers. This project engages manufacturers in the development and deployment of residential end-use connectivity to validate how coordinated control of these technologies can provide novel grid services (e.g. balancing electricity demand and reliability with the variability of distributed energy sources). Through partnerships with utilities, equipment and appliance manufacturers, realtors, and national labs, the project develops new methods and applications of complex control to provide these resources to the grid. The project team leverages existing market solutions like home energy management system (HEMS), enables interoperability by developing multi-protocol device drivers, and facilitates validations using retrofit-compatible hardware/software as supervisory controllers.

Project Impact

The target market of this project is residential buildings, which account for 21% of total U.S. energy consumption. Easy to deploy, open-source solutions can enable grid-responsiveness, reduce energy costs, address existing market gaps, and provide additional end-use services to homeowners, which realize both energy and cost savings for U.S. homeowners while helping U.S. manufacturers increase their competitiveness in a changing market.

Contacts

DOE Technology Manager: Joe Hagerman
Principal Investigator:  Teja Kuruganti, ORNL

Related Publications