Energy efficiency

News and Updates

A House Ahead of Its Time

November 4, 2024

A decade in, NIST’s superefficient house continues to generate results and advance building science.

University, NIST Researchers Create Residential Building Models to Evaluate Fairness of Electricity Tariffs

January 1, 2024

The increased adoption of energy technologies like smart meters, solar panels, and battery storage has led to a rise in electricity pricing plans with costs

University, NIST Researchers Develop Strategy for Cutting Home HVAC Electricity Costs

June 1, 2023

To help reduce electricity consumption and its costs, university and NIST researchers proposed a strategy for controlling residential heating, ventilation, and

Projects and Programs

Automated Fault Detection and Diagnostics for the Mechanical Services in Commercial Buildings

Ongoing

Objective To put forward a new and practical measurement science whose “instruments” are realized commercially as a marketplace of highly effective, automated fault detection and diagnostic (AFDD) software products and services. These will employ data analytics and artificial intelligence to

Optoelectrical Characterization of Nanostructured Photovoltaic Materials and Devices

Completed

In a typical PV cell, light absorption creates excitons that separate into charge carriers under the influence of the electric field of a p-n junction. The free carriers must leave the PV device, reaching and crossing their respective contacts, to generate useful power. Usually, only part of the

SRM 3452 certified Seebeck coefficient data

Transport Property Measurements for Semiconductors and Energy Materials

Ongoing

The properties of materials and interfaces that govern reliability, performance, and thermal transport in advanced microelectronic packages are not fully characterized or understood, especially at device length scales wherein properties may differ significantly from bulk or literature values

Cityscape in the background. Solar panels in the foreground.

Smart Grid Program

Completed

Objective: To develop and demonstrate advances in measurement science to enable integration of interoperable and secure real-time sensing, control, communications, information and power technologies, in order to increase the system efficiency, reliability, resiliency and sustainability of the nation

Publications

ZandrEA Software in Research to Automate Fault Detection and Diagnostics of Mechanical Systems in Large Commercial Buildings -- A Primer

April 10, 2025

Author(s)

Daniel Veronica

Mechanical systems in large commercial buildings, particularly their heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems, routinely waste significant

Effects of Weathering and Formulation on the Properties of Vinyl Siding

September 23, 2024

Author(s)

Ronald Lankone, Mauro Zammarano, Song Jhang, Ickchan Kim, David Goodwin, Gianluca Sarti, Stefano Gardi, Camillo Cardelli, Lipiin Sung

Vinyl siding has become a popular choice for residential exteriors across the United States. In its insulated form, this siding includes a shell, capstock, and

Advanced Co-simulation Framework for Assessing the Interplay between Occupant Behaviors and Demand Flexibility in Commercial Buildings

September 2, 2024

Author(s)

Zhelun Chen, Jin Wen, Yicheng Li, L James Lo, Gabriel Grajewski, Vance (Wm.) Payne, Steven T. Bushby, Amanda Pertzborn, Zheng O'Neill, Zhiyao Yang, Caleb Calfa

With buildings contributing significantly to electricity usage, enabling demand flexibility becomes a challenge, especially when accounting for occupant comfort

Low-GWP Working Fluid Mixtures Screening for Industrial High Temperature Heat Pumps with Supply Temperature >200 °C

August 15, 2024

Author(s)

Jan Spale, Andreas Hoess, Ian Bell, Davide Ziviani

Single-component working fluids, which could be used in a safe, efficient, reliable, and cost-effective industrial high temperature heat pump (HTHP) subcritical

Software

HVAC-Cx Building HVAC Systems Commissioning Tool

July 18, 2024

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

The NIST Data Alignment Tool

August 12, 2022

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

Building Life Cycle Cost Programs

May 3, 2022

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

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

Tools and Instruments

Apparatus for the Measurement of High Temperature Thermoelectric Transport Properties

Description The Seebeck coefficient is a widely measured transport property that provides fundamental information on charge carrier transport and the electronic

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