Energy efficiency

News and Updates

New NIST Framework Strives for Cleaner, More Secure Power Grid

February 18, 2021

Whether it’s a new set of solar panels glistening on a neighbor’s roof or a freshly installed smart thermostat at home, burgeoning renewable and smart

Quantum Matchmaking: New NIST System Detects Ultra-Faint Communications Signals Using the Principles of Quantum Physics

September 23, 2020

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have devised and demonstrated a system that could dramatically increase the performance

A shower head with steamy water coming out.

NIST Identifies Critical Needs for Improved Plumbing

May 11, 2020

We don’t use water like we used to. In recent decades, concerns about cost, water shortages and environmental impacts together with changes in plumbing design

Projects and Programs

Nanocalorimetry Measurements

Nanocalorimetry provides a capability to measure the thermal properties of very small samples and at very fast rates. Materials and interfaces of interest

Smart Grid Interoperability Testbed Facility

NIST is charged by the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) with facilitation of interoperability standards to enable successful implementation of

Air Distribution Impacts in Net-Zero Energy Homes

A Net-Zero Energy Residential Test Facility (NZERTF) has been constructed and extensively instrumented. The facility incorporates a high-performance envelope, a

Nanotribology for Nanomanufacturing (Archived)

Tribology is the science and technology of interacting surfaces in relative motion and includes studies of friction, adhesion, lubrication, and wear

Publications

On the Benefits of Whole-building IAQ, Ventilation, Infiltration, and Energy Analysis Using Co-simulation between CONTAM and EnergyPlus

September 13, 2021

Author(s)

William Stuart Dols, Chad Milando, Lisa Ng, Steven Emmerich, Jyrteanna Teo

Publicly available tools to perform whole-building simulation of indoor air quality, ventilation, and energy have been available for several decades. Until

Deep reinforcement learning assisted energy harvesting wireless networks

May 24, 2021

Author(s)

Junliang Ye, Hamid Gharavi

Heterogeneous ultra-dense networking (HUDN) with energy harvesting technology is a promising approach to deal with the ever-growing traffic that can severely

Residential net-zero energy buildings: Review and perspective

May 1, 2021

Author(s)

Wei Wu, Harrison Skye

Advancements in residential net-zero energy buildings (NZEBs) could significantly reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. NZEB design considerations

Laboratory Tests of a Prototype Carbon Dioxide Ground-Source Air Conditioner

April 12, 2021

Author(s)

Harrison Skye, Wei Wu

Environmental concerns are driving regulations to reduce the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) with high global warming potential (GWP) as refrigerants in heat

Software

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

Building Life Cycle Cost Programs

June 1, 2020

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

The NIST Data Alignment Tool

June 18, 2019

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

HVAC-Cx Building HVAC Systems Commissioning Tool

December 14, 2017

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

Tools and Instruments

Apparatus for the Measurement of High Temperature Thermoelectric Transport Properties

The Seebeck coefficient is a physical parameter routinely measured to identify the potential thermoelectric performance of a material. However, researchers

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