Buildings Research
Research Focus Areas
Buildings End-Use Energy Efficiency Research
This research focuses on effective building and appliance technologies that put California on the path to zero net energy residential buildings by 2020 and zero net energy commercial buildings by 2030. This research explores new and emerging energy efficiency technologies suitable for retrofitting existing buildings, as well as energy efficiency techniques for building maintenance and commissioning to optimize all cost-effective energy efficiency measures. Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) also examines the resource lifecycle in the context of the built environment, human behavior and its effect on energy savings, and attempts to understand and overcome barriers to energy efficiency deployment in residential and commercial buildings.
Buildings efficiency research is primarily focused on short- to medium-term applied research in new and existing buildings. The research portfolio is grouped into eight research categories:
Focus areas include:
- Lighting (e.g. light sources, fixtures, controls).
- Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (e.g. motors, fans, rooftop units, indoor environmental quality, operations and maintenance).
- Demand Response (e.g. metering, pricing, end-use load management).
- Equipment, Appliances and Plug Loads (e.g. water heating, foodservice, electronics).
- Whole Building and Envelope (e.g. fenestration, windows, simulation).
- Community-Scale (e.g. heat islands, cool roofs, walkable communities, environmental impacts of building materials).
- Demonstrations and Market Adoption.
- Codes and Standards (e.g. Title 24 - Buildings, Title 20 - Appliances).