Energy efficiency

News and Updates

A House Ahead of Its Time

November 4, 2024

A decade in, NIST’s superefficient house continues to generate results and advance building science.

University, NIST Researchers Create Residential Building Models to Evaluate Fairness of Electricity Tariffs

January 1, 2024

The increased adoption of energy technologies like smart meters, solar panels, and battery storage has led to a rise in electricity pricing plans with costs

University, NIST Researchers Develop Strategy for Cutting Home HVAC Electricity Costs

June 1, 2023

To help reduce electricity consumption and its costs, university and NIST researchers proposed a strategy for controlling residential heating, ventilation, and

Events

Abstract blue image Advancing UV Germicidal Efficacy Measurement: Metrology, Standards, Data and Protocols

Workshop: Advancing UV Germicidal Efficacy Measurement: Metrology, Standards, Data and Protocols

Tue, Mar 18 - Thu, Mar 20 2025

The U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the International Ultraviolet

Projects and Programs

Measuring the Performance of Net-Zero Energy Homes

Completed

Objective: Develop the measurement science necessary to evaluate various technological approaches to achieve net-zero energy residential buildings, including innovative monitoring techniques, methods of test, performance metrics and high quality experimental data for the validation and improvement

Air Distribution Impacts in Net-Zero Energy Homes

Ongoing

Objective - Develop the measurement science necessary to evaluate various technological approaches, with a focus on the air distribution systems, to achieve thermally comfortable and healthy net-zero energy residential buildings via innovative monitoring techniques, methods of test, performance

Nanocalorimetry Measurements

Ongoing

Accurate thermodynamic measurements are essential to understand fundamental properties of materials, providing direct and quantifiable insight into the thermodynamics of thin film reactions and phase transitions. Going forward, new classes of materials may only be synthesized as thin films, a scale

Smart Grid Interoperability Testbed Facility

Ongoing

Objective - To develop and progress an advanced multi-mode interacting measurement testbed that leverage cross-OU expertise to facilitate implementation, validation, and full characterization of smart grid interoperability standards and smart grid performance, with a particular emphasis on DER

Publications

Effects of Weathering and Formulation on the Properties of Vinyl Siding

September 23, 2024

Author(s)

Ronald Lankone, Mauro Zammarano, Song Jhang, Ickchan Kim, David Goodwin, Gianluca Sarti, Stefano Gardi, Camillo Cardelli, Lipiin Sung

Vinyl siding has become a popular choice for residential exteriors across the United States. In its insulated form, this siding includes a shell, capstock, and

Advanced Co-simulation Framework for Assessing the Interplay between Occupant Behaviors and Demand Flexibility in Commercial Buildings

September 2, 2024

Author(s)

Zhelun Chen, Jin Wen, Yicheng Li, L James Lo, Gabriel Grajewski, Vance (Wm.) Payne, Steven T. Bushby, Amanda Pertzborn, Zheng O'Neill, Zhiyao Yang, Caleb Calfa

With buildings contributing significantly to electricity usage, enabling demand flexibility becomes a challenge, especially when accounting for occupant comfort

Low-GWP Working Fluid Mixtures Screening for Industrial High Temperature Heat Pumps with Supply Temperature >200 °C

August 15, 2024

Author(s)

Jan Spale, Andreas Hoess, Ian Bell, Davide Ziviani

Single-component working fluids, which could be used in a safe, efficient, reliable, and cost-effective industrial high temperature heat pump (HTHP) subcritical

Development of a Simulation Tool for the Intelligent Building Agents Project

August 1, 2024

Author(s)

Amanda Pertzborn

In the U.S., commercial buildings are responsible for approximately 36 % of total energy consumption, and the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC)

Software

HVAC-Cx Building HVAC Systems Commissioning Tool

July 18, 2024

HVAC-Cx is a semi-automated commissioning software tool designed to facilitate performance analysis for heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC)

The NIST Data Alignment Tool

August 12, 2022

The Data Alignment Tool (DAT) was built to assist with the analysis of data used in testing fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) tools and building

Building Life Cycle Cost Programs

May 3, 2022

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) developed the Building Life Cycle Cost (BLCC) Programs to provide computational support for the

HVAC SIMulation PLUS other systems (HVACSIM+)

May 11, 2021

The first version of HVACSIM+, which stands for “HVAC SIMulation PLUS other systems”, was introduced by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in

Tools and Instruments

Apparatus for the Measurement of High Temperature Thermoelectric Transport Properties

Description The Seebeck coefficient is a widely measured transport property that provides fundamental information on charge carrier transport and the electronic

Material Analysis Using Neutron Depth Profiling

Light elements such as helium, lithium, boron, and nitrogen are essential constituents in materials that enable energy technologies; lithium ion batteries