Commercial buildings devour almost 20% of all energy within the United States, and the Department of Energy is looking into how they can better reduce this number with integrated controls.
To dig deeper into research, the U.S. Department of Energy selected Seventhwave, a nonprofit energy efficiency firm from Madison, WI.
Seventhwave research efforts are a part of the Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office (BTO) July 2017 announcement that it will invest more than $3 million in five projects to improve the efficiency of commercial buildings in the U.S.
“We will investigate and share the impacts and trade-offs from integrating LED lighting, daylighting, plug load controls, and zone air flow controls,” says Scott Hackel, director of engineering Seventhwave. “This can empower owners and designers to aim for a higher level of energy performance, and improve indoor environmental quality — which also benefits building occupants.”
Each project team, made up of strategically structured partners, will develop and verify the benefits and trade-offs of multisystem energy efficient technology packages (groups of technologies that improve efficiency across two building systems: envelope, lighting/electrical, plug, process, heating, ventilation, cooling, refrigeration, energy management and information, sensors and controls).
The takeway from the research will aim to assist commercial building owners and operators with a better understanding of how to optimize building systems in order to achieve significant cost-effective energy savings.
To learn more about the program and its initiatives, visit the DOE website here.
