CREL, CIEE, the BEST Center, and LBNL are transforming clean energy education at California community colleges by turning campuses into labs for applied research and workforce training.
High-performance Buildings Center of Excellence for California Community CollegesRead More »
This project studied the integration of “smart” ceiling fans with advanced thermostats along side existing HVAC systems through both laboratory testing and demonstration pilots at affordable multifamily housing sites.
Behavioral adaptations enabled through optimized settings and advanced algorithms is the easiest and possibly most cost-effective method to address HVAC energy use. A low-cost HVAC controller with a very simple user interface (UI) that understands occupant comfort preferences and manages indoor conditions to optimize energy use, without requiring connection to the Internet, could overcome the economic and technology barriers.
Intelligent HVAC Controls for Low Income HouseholdsRead More »
This project aims to overcome barriers to mainstreaming personal comfort devices in commercial buildings to improve comfort, save energy, and provide resilience.
Mainstreaming Personal Comfort Devices with Modular ControlsRead More »
CIEE is partnering with the Maryland Department of the Environment to model how Maryland’s BEPS policy pathways affect emissions, energy use, retrofit costs, and peak demand across the state’s building stock, informing equitable, cost-effective decarbonization regulations.
The goal of the EcoBlock research project is to explore strategies for resilience and the rapid, equitable, and affordable reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through urban block-scale retrofitting.
This interdisciplinary eXtensible Building Operating System–Vehicles (XBOS-V) project focused on controlling plug-in electric vehicle charging at residential and small commercial settings using a novel and flexible open-source, open-architecture charge communication and control platform.
Phasor-Based Control (PBC) is a radically new layered control framework for managing high penetrations of solar and other variable energy resources on electric utility distribution circuits. This project integrates several threads of research and development including high-precision micro-synchrophasor (µPMU) measurements, analytics relating phasor profiles to dynamic and unbalanced power flows, decentralized adaptive control algorithms, and simulation capabilities to effectively characterize large networks.
Phasor-Based Control for Scalable Solar PV IntegrationRead More »
This project is a multi-tiered incentives program for contractors in California who are dedicated to providing quality installation, maintenance, and advancing energy-efficient technologies in the residential HVAC industry.
Natural gas combustion to serve space heating hot water systems causes approximately one-third of large commercial building energy use in California. This project evaluated an innovative set of non-proprietary, cost-effective methods to reduce energy consumption and associated emissions from these systems. The project demonstrated 70% natural gas savings and substantial electricity savings in two large office buildings, yielding total utility cost savings of approximately $110,000 (or $0.5/ft²) per year.
Reducing Gas Consumption in Existing Large Commercial BuildingsRead More »
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