Building America Team: Newport Partners
Partner: Broan-NuTone
Newport Partners have partnered with Broan-NuTone, the nation’s leading developer and supplier of domestic range hoods, to develop, test, and demonstrate a prototype Smart Range Hood. The smart range hood will far exceed current state-of-the-art and will offer a cost-competitive, affordable, auto-responsive, consumer-friendly, quiet, effective, efficient, ASHRAE-62.2-compliant local exhaust, and whole dwelling unit ventilation solution. The project will involve development of smart controls, an intelligent user interface, and multiple iterations of prototypes; lab testing for capture efficiency, sones, and flow; and field demonstrations.
A prototype smart range hood will far exceed current state-of-the-art and will offer a cost-competitive, affordable, auto-responsive, consumer-friendly, quiet, effective, efficient, ASHRAE-62.2-compliant whole dwelling unit ventilation solution.
Completed work:
- Selected final sensors
- Developed Gen 2 prototype
- Over 350 cooking tests
- Dozens of control algorithm revisions
- Tested filters and lenses
- Completed lab test plan.
Progress toward goals:
- Efficacy goal: 1.5 x ENERGY STAR® = 4.2 cfm/W. Achieved 4.5–4.7 cfm/W working speed with various configurations.
- Sound goal: less than or equal to 1 sone, at greater than or equal to 150 cfm. Achieved 0.3-0.6 sones at 150–160 cfm at working speed with various configurations.
- Capture efficiency goal: greater than or equal to 90%. Achieved 90% at 250 cfm, and 98% at 400 cfm.
- 2019 will be the final year of this project
- Complete field test plan and Institutional Review Board approval for human subject research
- Q1: lab tests with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Q2 analyze test results
- Q2-Q3: conduct field tests
- Q3: final report.
For more information, project presentations, and related publications, visit the Development of a Smart Range Hood web page.