Engineers, Tinkerers, and Innovators Are Invited to Join the JUMP Initiative

JUMP connects innovators to industry to make the most creative ideas a reality. Oak Ridge National Laboratory and industry partners (A.O. Smith, GE, and UTRC) want to collaborate with you to solve some of the most interesting technical challenges facing the buildings energy-efficiency industry. Think you can help? Visit http://web.ornl.gov/jump to learn more. Winning submitters may qualify for:

• Cash prizes of $3,000 to $5,000 provided by industry partners
• In-kind technical support to cover prototype development, testing, third-party evaluation, and more (worth $10,000 to $15,000)
• Linkage to the Department of Energy’s Small Business Voucher pilot, with in-kind technical support of up to $300,000, if approved
• Opportunity to discuss future collaboration with ORNL and/or industry partners

Currently there are three campaigns accepting submissions:

Thermal Energy Storage Using Phase Change Materials (PCM) in Gas or Electric Water Heaters (WH), co-sponsored by A.O. Smith
The challenge is to use PCM to get an equivalent first hour rating (FHR) of a >55 gallon WH in the footprint of a smaller-sized WH without increasing water storage temperature, resulting in a 15-30% increase in FHR.

Low-Temperature Intrinsically Safe Defrost System, co-sponsored by General Electric (GE)
The challenge is to develop a low-cost system to remove ice from the evaporator while conforming to UL 250 Flammable Refrigerants Addendum.

Low-Cost BTU Sensor for Use in Building HVAC Control Systems, co-sponsored by United Technologies Research Center (UTRC)
The challenge is to develop a BTU sensor that has an accuracy of less than 10% full scale and costs less than 20% of the installed cost of conventional BTU measurements.

All submissions will be judged by a panel of technical experts whose bios are available on the JUMP website.

Submit your idea to any of the above campaigns by December 15, 2015. Visit today at http://web.ornl.gov/jump!