GTI Energy’s efforts on residential energy use focus on pathways for near to mid-term pathways for improving energy efficiency, reducing greenhouse gases, and providing resilience. Increasingly, residential solutions are integrated with electric heat pumps, dual fuel heating, and leveraging renewable energy.
Affordable ZNE Home Construction
GTI Energy, in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity, conducted a research project with funding from California Energy Commission and SoCalGas. This project demonstrated that affordable zero net energy (ZNE) homes are readily achievable using low-cost construction techniques and on-site renewable energy in combination with high performance housing approaches developed from research and development over the past decade.
All-electric and mixed-fuel prototype package were developed and piloted in two single family homes in the City of Stockton to validate ZNE building energy performance and consumer and building industry acceptance.
As part of the project, a two-part webinar series and a best practices book were developed to present best practices to building ZNE homes in an energy and economically efficient way.
GTI Energy has also created a Guide to Best Practices for Home Energy Retrofits sponsored by the California Energy Commission.
Recognizing the importance of integrated systems to improve the built environment, GTI Energy researchers are developing solutions for buildings as a system to optimize equipment performance and reduce carbon intensity. To drive down annual energy loads, existing homes and commercial buildings are being retrofitted with high-efficiency envelopes and using them in new construction, paired with high-efficiency, low-capacity HVAC systems. This work also assesses improved labor productivity through envelope retrofits to incorporate advanced technologies such as digitalization and prefabrication that integrates with technology solutions such as vacuum insulated glass, aerogels, and vacuum-insulated panels.
Working with emerging technology partners, GTI Energy is involved with demonstration projects of emerging technology in homes, with a large focus on combined space heat and water systems (aka “Combi” systems). GTI Energy has been engaged in demonstration projects in Illinois and New York for hybrid space conditioning systems that pair low-capacity furnaces with heat pumps that provide cooling and some heating. These projects have retrofitted systems in both market-rate and income-eligible homes to monitor energy savings over the heating and cooling season.
GTI Energy is also performing applied research on residential hot water heating and distribution systems, including evaluation and demonstration of thermal energy storage, heat pump technologies, demand-controlled recirculation loops and hydronic heating combination systems.
Integrating energy efficiency systems with solid high-performance building enclosures sets the stage for zero net enegy (ZNE) homes, and GTI Energy is leading integrative evaluation of how energy efficiency systems integrate with distributed energy generation sources including solar photovoltaics, microgrids, and micro combined heat and power (mCHP) systems. This provides a holistic approach for on-site power generation and resilience for residential consumers.
The Building Research and Consulting team of GTI Energy’s subsidiary Frontier Energy develops innovative approaches for achieving energy efficiency in new and existing residential and small commercial buildings through systems and whole building research and development.
As a research team leader for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America program, GTI Energy led the Partnership for Advanced Residential Retrofit (PARR) investigating how residential home performance improvements affect indoor air quality and how different types of mechanical ventilation mitigate any issues. Learn more about the PARR team and over 20 reports here.
Award-Winning Source Energy and Emissions Factors Modeling Tool (Residential Module)
The publicly available residential module of the Source Energy and Emissions Factors Modeling Tool (formerly called Energy Planning Analysis Tool [EPAT]) provides regional U.S. estimates of site and full-cycle energy consumption, capital and operating costs for several residential energy applications, and full-cycle emissions. The American Gas Association has supported the addition of a new feature that adds Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) capabilities to the tool.
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