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Energy
Smart Solar Energy System Headed
for the Public
A
novel
system that uses the power of the sun to directly heat water
is about to become commercially available after years of development
and testing at NIST.
An
exclusive license has been granted to Four Seasons Solar Products
Corp. of Holbrook, N.Y., to use the NIST patented technology.
The solar water heating system is the first to use photovoltaic
cells and computer chips to harness and direct the sun’s
energy. PV cells convert energy from sunlight into electricity.
The NIST system uses an array of these cells to transfer solar
power to specially designed heating elements inside a hot water
tank.
The
system can use as many as six heating elements. A microprocessor
monitors the energy produced by the photovoltaic cells, and then
determines which heating element or combination of elements to
use in the tank. This process enables the system to work very
efficiently, taking advantage of the varying amounts of solar
energy harvested throughout the day and optimizing the output
from the solar cells.
The
system eliminates durability and reliability issues associated
with previous solar thermal hot water systems. Solar thermal systems
heat water by pumping water or an antifreeze solution through
solar collector panels. These systems require the use of pipes
and circulating pumps to transport the fluid from the storage
tank through the solar collectors. The PV solar water heating
system does not require a circulating pump or pipes to transport
the collected energy to the storage tank; it uses conventional
house wiring.
Engineers
developed and tested the system at NIST’s Gaithersburg campus.
Several other successful pilot projects have shown that the system
works well in different climates. For example, one system supplies
hot water in the rest rooms at the Sugarlands
Visitor’s Center within the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park. The system is also in use at the Florida
Solar Energy Center and at two U.S. military housing units
in Okinawa.
Media Contact:
Philip Bulman, (301) 975-5661 
Millennium
Bug
Nearly 20K Get O.K. for Y2K
from MEP
Records
kept through July 24, 1999, indicate that training for the year
2000 problem provided by NIST’s
Manufacturing Extension Partnership has reached thousands
of small businesses since its May 1998 debut. More than 19,300
individuals, representing more than 10,200 companies, have participated
in 975 workshops nationwide. These statistics represent reports
from only 20 states, so the overall numbers of persons and businesses
helped are believed to be much higher.
In
addition, it is estimated that approximately 20,000 users have
downloaded the NIST MEP’s
Y2K Self-Help Tool since it went online this past February.
Analysts
at the Y2K Help Center for Small Business, (800) Y2K-7557 (925-7557),
can provide year 2000 advice and assistance in English
or Spanish, as well as a free copy of the “Conversion
2000: Y2K Self-Help Tool” software.The tool and other related
material can be downloaded from the World Wide Web at y2khelp.nist.gov.
Media Contact:
Jan Kosko, (301) 975-2767
Optoelectronics
Increased Accuracy Is Goal of New
Pyroelectric Radiometer
Researchers
in NIST’s
Optoelectronics and Optical Technology Divisions have worked
together to build and evaluate a practical and convenient pyroelectric
radiometer for measuring optical power, radiance and irradiance
in the visible, near and mid-infrared wavelength regions. Although
the development will not provide a new NIST measurement service,
it will help NIST upgrade and increase the accuracy of current
services. The unique lithium niobate pyroelectric detector incorporates
domain engineering (the engineering of specific crystal properties)
to orient the polarization in specific detector regions of the
crystal to achieve desired noise reduction. The result is a radiometer
with high spatial and spectral response uniformity that will make
an excellent transfer standard. The radiometer is capable of routine
measurements having uncertainties approaching 0.1 percent.
A
paper describing the new detector is available from Sarabeth Harris,
MC 104, NIST, Boulder, Colo. 80303-3337; (303) 497-3237; sarabeth@boulder.nist.gov.
Ask for paper no. 30-99.
Media Contact:
Fred McGehan Boulder, (303)
497-3246
Quality
Wanted: Baldrige Award Examiners
for 2000
It’s
a tough, demanding job—without pay. So why is a position
on the board of examiners for the Malcolm
Baldrige National Quality Award so desirable? Here’s
what Kathy Yeu, vice president, customer satisfaction, at Charles
Schwab & Co. Inc., and a senior examiner for four years, says,
“My experience as a Baldrige examiner has been a tremendous
asset to my professional development, has exposed me to an infinite
and broad set of networking opportunities, and has enabled me
to contribute to a program dedicated to improving organizational
performance across the country.”
NIST
is looking for volunteers from a wide variety of business and
not-for-profit organizations to serve a one-year term on the board
of examiners for the 2000 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.
Examiners
evaluate applications for the award, prepare feedback reports
to applicants citing strengths and opportunities for improvement,
and recommend award winners to the NIST director. Qualifications
include expertise in business, education or health care management
processes and results, as well as knowledge of practices and improvement
strategies that lead to organizational excellence. The board consists
of about 400 members, including nine judges and about 60 senior
examiners. Applications for the board will be available in November
1999.
Additional
information is available by calling (301) 975-2036 or on the Baldrige
award web site at www.quality.nist.gov/examr2000/page1-top.htm.
Media Contact:
Jan Kosko, (301) 975-2767
Administration
Snell Named Head of Building and
Fire Research Lab
Jack
E. Snell has been appointed director of NIST’s
Building and Fire Research Laboratory.
Snell
has served since 1971 in a variety of positions at NIST and its
predecessor, the National Bureau of Standards. Prior to NBS, his
positions in the private sector and academia ranged from aircraft
maintenance engineering for Pan American World Airways Inc. to
teaching positions at Princeton University and the Indian Institute
of Technology in Kampur, India. He became deputy director of BFRL
in 1991 and was named acting director earlier this year following
the retirement of Richard Wright.
The
Building and Fire Research Laboratory studies building materials;
computer-integrated construction practices; fire science and fire
safety engineering; and structural, mechanical and environmental
engineering.
Snell is the author or co-author of numerous articles, papers
and reports on fire research, energy conservation and transportation
systems.
After
receiving a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering
from Princeton University, Snell earned his master’s degree
in industrial engineering and doctorate in civil engineering at
Northwestern University.
Media Contact:
Philip Bulman, (301) 975-5661
Standards
Conference Eyes Future of
Transatlantic Marketplace
Twenty-first
century prospects for integrating regional markets and improving
regulatory cooperation in transatlantic trade will be assessed
by European and North American leaders on Oct. 12-14, 1999, at
the “Transatlantic Regulatory Harmonization and Global Standards:
21st Century Challenges and Opportunities for Regulatory Policy
Cooperation, Cross-Border Competition, and Global Market Governance
in North America and Europe” conference. The event is hosted
by George Washington University and sponsored by NIST, the German
Marshall Fund, and other major public and private organizations.
To
be held at the university in Washington, D.C., the conference
will focus on emerging trends in conformity assessment, regulation
and standards. These trends will be examined from the perspective
of electronic commerce and that of several major industries, such
as automotive, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology (including genetically
modified foods). Topics of plenary sessions will include the impact
of mutual recognition agreements on market integration, the role
of the Transatlantic Business Dialogue, global standards, regulatory
harmonization, public policy, and market governance.
Commerce
Secretary William Daley and Hugo Paemen, European Union ambassador
to the United States, are among the invited speakers. Panel discussions
will feature government officials, industry executives and university
researchers from Europe, the United States and Canada.
The
registration fee, which covers all lunches, coffee breaks and
a dinner at the Organization of American States, is $250 for academic
and government participants. The corporate registration fee is
$750. The conference is organized by GWU’s School of Business
and Public Management in cooperation with Belgium’s Katholieke
University. For more information, contact Reba Carruth, (202)
994-1759, racarr@gwu.edu.
To be operational on Aug. 9, the conference web page can
be found at www.gwu.edu/~tranconf.
Media Contact:
Mark Bello, (301) 975-3776
Chemistry
New NIST Database Makes Air Quality
Checks a Breeze
A
new
database now available from NIST will help measure airborne pollutants
from manufacturing plants or other sources with greater accuracy.
The new NIST
Quantitative Infrared Database has been designed to calibrate
and verify measurements made with infrared-based analytical instruments
in field monitoring of hazardous air pollutants identified by
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The new database, available
on CD-ROM, also is the first issued by NIST that can be used to
establish traceability to NIST’s primary gas standards. A
team of NIST scientists created the database in response to a
request from the EPA.
NIST
scientists accurately measured and assessed the uncertainty of
the infrared spectra for 21 volatile organic compounds identified
as high priorities by the EPA. The measurements were made on primary
gas standards prepared and verified at NIST. In the future, researchers
will expand and update the database to contain about 100 of the
189 compounds listed in the Clean Air Act amendments.
The
database includes programs to allow viewing, printing and verifying
the spectra. The database also employs data authentication to
assure users that spectral files are unaltered and traceable to
NIST.
The
Quantitative Infrared Database, NIST Standard Reference Database
79, is available from the NIST Standard Reference Data Program
for $240. It runs on a Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT operating
system. Updates will be available over the Internet. For more
information on the database, go to www.gases.nist.gov
on the World Wide Web. To order, contact the NIST SRDP, 100 Bureau
Drive, Stop 2310, Gaithersburg, Md. 20899-2310; (301) 975-2208;
fax: (301) 926-0416; srdata@nist.gov.
Media Contact:
Linda Joy, (301) 975-4403
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