Avery Schwer

A Comparative Study of Three Feedback Devices for Residential Real-Time Energy Monitoring

Residential energy consumption accounts for 21% of the total electricity use in the United States. Unfortunately, research indicates that almost 41% of this power is wasted. Changing the way that consumers use energy may be important in reducing home energy consumption. This paper looks at whether the implementation of certain real-time energy monitors has an impact on the residential rate of energy consumption in a metropolitan area with relatively low electricity rates. In the following case study, 151 Omaha residences were equipped with two variants of the Aztech In-Home Display (Aztech) as well as the Blue Line Power Cost Monitor (PCM) real-time energy monitors for a period of 16 months. The results of the data, 30 days after installation, revealed a statistically insignificant reduction of 12% in mean electrical consumption in houses equipped with a PCM and no reduction in mean consumption in homes using either variants of the Aztech device when compared to a randomly selected control sample. However, they proved effective in the short term if utilized by utilities for mass distribution to foster awareness among participating residents of their own patterns of residential electricity consumption and on the environmental impacts of energy saving.

Adaptive photovoltaic system

This paper discussed a new photovoltaic (PV) system topology that uses PV energy in efficient way in order to improve system power output during different operating conditions. The proposed topology provides flexible connection between PV modules to achieve different configurations of PV array. A new switching matrix has been developed to achieve the required configurations. Preliminary simulations provide promising results for an adaptive PV array. Comparison between traditional PV system configurations and adaptive configuration is considered. A significant improvement in power curves is achieved by the proposed topology.

An AHP-weighted aggregated data quality indicator (AWADQI) approach for estimating embodied energy of building materials

PurposeAggregated data quality indicator (ADQI) method has been used to estimate probability distributions of the input data in a life cycle assessment (LCA) to compensate for insufficient data in a statistical analysis. In a traditional ADQI, a multicriteria evaluation process, the impacts of various quality indicators under investigation are often equally weighted or unweighted despite the fact that some of them may weight more than the others on contributing to the overall data uncertainty. An unweighted ADQI (UWADQI) approach, though simple, may lead to incorrect conclusions. This paper aims to develop a weighted ADQI to overcome the deficiency of the unweighted ADQI to make it more reliable for LCA uncertainty analysis.MethodTo improve the UWADQI approach, an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is introduced in this research for estimating weighting factors in the ADQI aggregation process. An AHP’s pairwise comparison function is used to determine the weighting of each data quality indicator. Three common building materials of concrete, steel, and glass were chosen to validate the presented method.Results and discussionUsing the published results from the statistical method as the benchmarks, it was found that the proposed AHP-weighted ADQI (AWADQI) method lead to better estimated probabilistic values of embodied energy intensity than the traditional UWADQI approach for the three building materials.Conclusions and recommendationsIn conclusion, using AHP to incorporate weighing factors into an ADQI process can improve the uncertainty estimate of embodied energy of building materials, and consequently, the method can improve the reliability of a building LCA.

Real Time Power Monitoring & integration with BIM

A Real Time Power Monitoring (RTPM) System is proposed in which end-use detailed energy consumption data is provided for each load level. The data will be integrated with a BIM (Building Information Modeling) Model to create a Realtime on-line electronic BIM Model. This paper describes the RTPM system and the process leading to its creation. The basic components of the proposed system were designed and tested using a prototype board.

Design of Compressed Stabilized Earthen Wall Systems for High-Wind Resistant Residential Unit Construction

Compressed and stabilized earthen masonry (CSEM) offers a sustainable, affordable, and locally appropriate alternative to traditional residential construction. In a National Science Foundation funded project carried out by the authors, the suitability of engineered earthen construction in high-wind climates as the main wind force resisting system (MWFRS) is investigated. The fundamental research program includes experimental investigations on the material properties of cement stabilized earth blocks, mortars, and assemblies. However, the particular subject of this paper is the remaining research gap with respect to available design processes and construction details in material-specific and general design codes and guidelines. In this project, this gap in knowledge is addressed by using the experimentally determined material characteristics and traditional reinforced masonry design methods to develop high-wind resistant wall systems using CSEM. Various reinforced double wythe CSEM wall system alternatives are proposed with roof-to-wall and wall-to-foundation connections and wall section details. Also, due to CSEM assemblies not meeting minimum strength requirements, bond beam designs made of CSEB units and CMU are proposed.

Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment of Water Reuse Strategies in Residential Buildings

1.0 Introduction The growth of cities is putting great strains on existing freshwater supplies in many areas, including the United States (Kloss, 2008). The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) has stated that buildings consume roughly 39% of all electricity and approximately 10% of all potable water (USGBC, 2008). The growing need for freshwater has lead to an increase in water reuse applications. However, some water reuse strategies actually result in an increase in energy usage and other environmental impacts. The objective of this study is to determine the environmental sustainability of three water reuse designs through economic input-output life cycle assessments (EIO-LCA). The water reuse designs include a simple greywater reuse system for subsurface landscape irrigation; an indoor greywater reuse system for toilet flushing and laundry washing; and a hybrid greywater and rainwater reuse system for landscape irrigation, toilet flushing, and laundry washing.