UC Davis Energy News – June/July 2023

Congratulations to our 2023 Energy Graduate Group graduates!

We are delighted to share the news that Kabian Ritter, Brianna Dooley, Meg Slattery, Kristi Dayemo, Galym Iskakov, Sienna Levine, Calleagh Turner, Kelsi Titus, Kelvin Ke, Tanner Palmer, Rachel Field, Joshua Ira, Lucas Beslow, and Alex Cagle participated in the June graduation ceremony at UC Davis. We extend our heartfelt congratulations and admiration for your achievements. Best of luck to you all!

WCEC Receives Best Paper Award from ASHRAE

Erfan Rasouli, Emily Fricke and Vinod Narayanan were recipients of the Science and Technology for the Built Environment Best Paper Award for “High Efficiency 3-D Printed Microchannel Polymer Heat Exchangers for Air Conditioning Applications.” The award is for the best paper published in the volume year of the Science and Technology for the Built Environment, the ASHRAE research journal.

Read More

Enroll as a Participant to Improve Your Building’s Energy Efficiency and Comfort

If you are the owner or operator of buildings that have packaged rooftop HVAC units, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) is providing free technical assistance and recognition opportunities. This assistance is aimed at helping you enhance the control and monitoring of your rooftop units, which has been shown to result in a 10-20% reduction in energy costs and improvement in comfort and maintenance practices.

Our Smarter Small Buildings campaign, sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE) and in partnership with UC Davis, is designed to help you make a business case for improved control RTU controls, product selection, installation, and operational best practices. The campaign can provide assistance in making a compelling business case for these enhancements. Furthermore, the campaign offers recognition opportunities for outstanding implementation of these measures. By enrolling in the campaign, you agree to participate in surveys and fulfill data requests as a campaign participant.

Enroll Here

Energy Code Lighting Language Cleanup Initiative

The California Lighting Technology Center, in collaboration with Southern California Edison, RMS Energy Consulting LLC, and the California Energy Alliance, established a working group of industry stakeholders to develop recommendations that simplify and clarify the nonresidential and residential lighting and lighting controls language contained in the 2022 Energy Code.

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EEI Seeks Post-Doctoral Researcher in Materials Decarbonization

The Energy and Efficiency Institute at the University of California, Davis, is seeking one post-doc to lead research in the area of low-carbon materials. The post-doc will participate in, lead, and develop new research projects in designing sustainable materials with an emphasis on assessing environmental burdens and integrating environmental impact assessment methods with material performance. The post-doc will develop means to robustly assess local, regional, and global burdens from materials consumption. The research will focus on cement-based materials (e.g., concrete), bio-derived materials (e.g., wood), alloys (e.g., steel), and/or polymeric materials (e.g., plastic).

Apply Now

Research Poster for a National Survey of Electrical Panels Using Citizen Scientists

There is surprisingly little data on electrical panel capacities in existing homes and the appliances attached to them. How many homes will need upgraded electrical panels before heat pumps, EVs and induction stoves can be installed?

View the Poster

Missed a Seminar?

Watch our recorded Energy Bites Seminar series and more.

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EEI Seeking Post-Doctoral Researcher for Materials Decarbonization

Learn More

UC Davis Energy News – May 2023

EEI Compares Notes on Heat Pumps with Japanese Experts

Acting Executive Director Alan Meier recently visited Japan to discuss heat pump technologies and policies with staff from the government research agency, New Energy Development Organization (NEDO). He also met with researchers from universities, research institutes, and private firms. Japan also faces serious challenges in de-carbonizing their residential heating systems — more than 20% of Japanese homes are still burning kerosene. The Japanese and California grids are increasingly relying on renewable energy sources, and Meier exchanged information on dynamic pricing and other strategies to balance demand and supply.

WCEC Engineer Presents at the IEA International Heat Pump Conference

As the push for electrification of energy sources continues, electric heat pumps offer an energy efficient solution for both heating and cooling while being capable of retrofitting in existing homes. Subhrajit Chakraborty, an engineer with the Western Cooling Efficiency Center, recently presented findings focused on a Multi-function Heat Pump (MFHP) system that uses one outdoor unit to provide both domestic hot water (DHW), along with space cooling and heating. An air-to-air MFHP, demonstrated in his work, reduces barriers to home electrification by avoiding electric resistance and lowering peak demand.

Missed a Seminar?

Watch our recorded Energy Bites Seminar series and more.

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UC Davis Energy News – April 2023

WCEC Participates in the UC Davis College of Engineering Mentoring Program

The UC Davis College of Engineering offers a Research, Inclusion and Mentoring Experiences program for undergraduates who are considering graduate study and/or careers in engineering research by linking them with engineering graduate students who are conducting research projects. The program aims to broaden participation in engineering advanced study, introduce students to new career paths, demonstrate the real-world impacts and applications of engineering research and provide graduate students with teaching and mentoring opportunities.

[Read More]

Materials Decarbonization Research Now in EEI

EEI is pleased to announce the formation of the Materials Decarbonization and Sustainability Program. This program is evidence of the growing role of low-carbon materials in global emissions-reduction strategies. The program will focus on creating breakthrough technologies without compromising material performance and life cycle greenhouse gas fluxes. Professor Sabbie Miller will be leading the Materials Decarbonization and Sustainability Program. Her current research involves creating breakthrough technologies that simultaneously address material performance and life cycle greenhouse gas fluxes. Realistic policy recommendations will be an important goal.

Energy Bites Seminar

May 4th, 2023 | 12:00pm-1:00pm | Location: EEI
Bites 1 & 2:Optimization of Ventilation and Filtration System Operation in Classrooms
Theresa Pistochini & Aref Aboud, WCEC

UC Davis Energy News – March 2023

Are Southern California students and teachers breathing clean air?

The air purifier in teacher Andres’ classroom at MacArthur Fundamental Intermediate School in Santa Ana was installed in 2021. But the first time the light went red no new filters could be found, a result of supply chain woes. Now, about two months after installing a replacement, the warning signal is back.

Andres, a sixth-grade math teacher who’s taught in the same class, Room 7, for 30 years, said the air problem isn’t just about COVID-19.

“We have mold issues,” she said. “There are issues like this all over the county. Some of these schools are old.

“Teachers just want to know that the air quality is good,” she added.

The issue isn’t trivial, or misunderstood. Studies have linked dirty air inside of schools — particularly in communities with dirty air outside of schools — to a variety of health conditions and learning delays. It’s also known that a proven, cost-effective way to clean up school air is to improve a school’s ventilation system.

[Read More]

Standardized Metrics to Quantify Solar Energy-Land Relationships: A Global Systematic Review

Recently published journal article by EGG student Alex Cagle seeks to unify disparate reporting efforts on solar-energy land interactions. This effort will standardize research methods to create a better understanding of the comprehensive impacts of solar energy installations on society and for researchers to utilize the totality of data to better understand, characterize and inform solar energy development.

[Read More]

LD+A Research Matters: Smart & Clean Exterior Lighting for the Community

Researchers at the California Lighting Technology Center are addressing the integration and demonstration of exterior lighting systems with on-board solar generation, battery storage and advanced controls with funding provided by the California Energy Commission’s EPIC program. In other words, “smart and clean” exterior lighting systems.

The research emphasizes how to best leverage mature, demand-side technologies to create a fully integrated, easy-to-install, low-maintenance system that reduces strain on California’s electricity grid. Lighting design practices used with this research prioritize engagement with residents and business owners through local community studies and technology demonstrations in priority communities. Pursuing an inclusive, community-focused relighting strategy can increase safety and use of outdoor areas.

[Read More]

Professor Alissa Kendall Wins Outstanding Faculty Award

Recognizing excellence in research and teaching, the College of Engineering celebrates its faculty members with outstanding faculty awards yearly. Departments nominate faculty members who are selected to receive the honors by the college’s Faculty Awards Committee.

Alissa is one of four faculty members that will receive an outstanding faculty award at the College of Engineering Awards Celebration on May 25.

Learn More

Are Southern California students and teachers breathing clean air?

Andres, a sixth-grade math teacher who’s taught in the same class, Room 7, for 30 years, said the air problem isn’t just about COVID-19.

“We have mold issues,” she said. “There are issues like this all over the county. Some of these schools are old.

“Teachers just want to know that the air quality is good,” she added.

Achieving Zero Emissions with More Mobility and Less Mining

Transportation is the number one source of carbon emissions in the United States– making the sector crucial to decarbonize quickly to limit the climate crisis. States like New York and California banned the sale of gas cars by 2035 and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act made major federal investments in electrifying transportation. As a result, US consumers are embracing electric vehicles (EVs), with over half of the nation’s car sales predicted to be electric by 2030. This is a critical juncture. Decisions made now will affect the speed of decarbonization and the mobility of millions. Zero emissions transportation will also see the transformation of global supply chains, with implications for climate, environmental, and Indigenous justice beyond US borders.

A crucial aspect of electrified transportation is new demand for metals, and specifically the most non-replaceable metal for EV batteries– lithium. If today’s demand for EVs is projected to 2050, the lithium requirements of the US EV market alone in 2050 would require triple the amount of lithium currently produced for the entire global market. This boom in demand would be met by the expansion of mining.

[Read More]

Moving Forward on Grid-Friendly Campuses

With over 150 public college and university campuses in California, there is significant potential to reduce statewide peak electrical demand and the need for carbon-intensive backup generation. The UC Office of the President (UCoP) encouraged EEI to submit a $10 million proposal that will create grid friendly campuses across California. Alan Meier and Sarah Outcault, along with a 25-person team from colleges and universities around California, will match world-renowned UC experts on advanced controls with campus facility staff who can ground them in real-world implementation constraints. At the same time, the project will develop training resources for higher education institutions across California to prepare students for careers in a world with a highly dynamic grid.

Aerosol Sealing of Existing Residences

WCEC’s novel method that automates the process of sealing building leaks has now been realized as a retrofit for existing buildings. Research for the DOE Building America project in collaboration with the Minnesota Center for Energy and Environment demonstrated the aerosol sealing approach on 34 existing homes in California and the Midwest. Overall, the project produced average leakage reductions of 53% and 64% for California homes and apartment units respectively, and 42% and 40% reductions for Midwest homes and apartment units.

This project also investigated a new strategy for addressing occupied homes. In this case, the nozzles are placed in the attic while setting the blower fan to negatively pressurize the space. WCEC tested this method on three townhouse apartments with very positive results showing the ability to seal over half of the leakage in all three cases. The attic sealing approach does not require extensive preparation of the home since the aerosol is produced in the attic space. This means the process no longer needs to spend valuable time either moving furniture out or placing protective plastic sheets on surfaces–significantly reducing the cost of total operation. WCEC is further developing this approach through work with the CalNEXT program which will look at applying the process to crawlspaces as well.

[Read the Conference Paper]

UC Davis Energy News – January 2023

CLTC Researches Residential Energy & Automation (REA) Systems

The CLTC will collaborate with California’s statewide electric emerging technologies program, CalNext on REA systems.

REA systems combine home-energy monitoring features with automated appliance management and control of distributed energy resources (DER) such as electric vehicle (EV) chargers, rooftop solar panels, and stationary battery energy storage (BES).

These new systems have significant potential to advance residential energy efficiency and peak demand reductions. Other benefits include residential load flexibility in the form of complete islanding or single family homes, which can remove significant load from the grid, and discharging of stationary and mobile BES (via bidirectional chargers), which can add capacity back.

[Learn more] about how CLTC works to optimize residential energy and automation systems.

Balancing a Battery-Powered Future With Energy Justice

As a new graduate student embarking on a master’s degree at the UC Davis Energy and Efficiency Institute in 2018, Meg Slattery was struck by how centrally batteries – particularly the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries in electric cars – figured into California’s decarbonization strategy.

[Read the Article]

Western Cooling Efficiency Center Researchers are Presenting Three Papers at This Year’s ASHRAE Conference in Georgia

Sunday, February 5th, Paper Session 3: WCEC’s Emily Fricke will present a paper (co-authored by Vinod Narayanan, Ph.D.) on System-Level Performance Modeling of a Sub-Wet Bulb Evaporative Chiller Coupled to a Microchannel Polymer Heat Exchanger for Residential Cooling Applications.

Monday, February 6th, Paper Session 10: Presenting Author Subhrajit Chakraborty, P.E., of WCEC (co-authored by Mazen Daher, and Theresa Pistochini, P.E.) will discuss the Impacts from Electrification of Space Heating in Residences and Offices: A Comprehensive Study of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Combustion and Leaks across the United States.

Tuesday, February 7th, Paper Session 19: Caton Mande co-authored this paper on Supervisory Multi-Objective Economic Model Predictive Control for Heat Pump Water Heaters for Cost and Carbon Optimization.

New Published Paper by WCEC that Experimentally and Numerically Characterizes the Performance of a Novel Cooling and Heat Recovery System

Authors Subhrajit Chakraborty, David Vernon, Apoorva Jha and Vinod Narayanan analyze the potential of utilizing a novel indirect evaporative cooler (IEC) that can efficiently cool building ventilation air in the hot summer months, and be used as a heat recovery ventilator in winter months. Their laboratory testing of this equipment showed significant energy savings potential, and validated their IEC physics-based model. Ultimately, this will lead to accurate modeling of this energy saving technology over a variety of buildings and climates. [Read More]

UC Davis Energy News – November 2022

Recently Published Conference Papers from the Western Cooling Efficiency Center

WCEC published three papers for the Summer Study ACEEE Conference. The first paper seeks to find an optimized method for controlling heat pump water heating load flexibility that will help stabilize the electrical grid and minimize operating costs to end-users.

The second paper tests a multi-function heat pump that can utilize the waste heat generated from air cooling to heat up hot water.

The third paper demonstrates the air leakage reductions achieved with an aerosol-based sealing technology as a retrofit to existing homes.

Watch Presentations From This Year’s Global Energy Managers Workshop

Thank you to all those who attended the UC Davis Global Energy Managers Workshop!
We hope you enjoyed the event. For those who missed it, workshop recordings and presentation slides can now be found on our website. We hope to see you next year!

[Workshop Webpage]

Free Online Event Exploring Innovations in Load Flexibility Across California – Dec. 6 & 7

Come connect with CalFlexHub’s ecosystem of multidisciplinary team of experts from many sectors—including state agencies, industry, utilities, academia, manufacturers, and non-profits—for the first annual CalFlexHub Symposium! This year’s Symposium will showcase CalFlexHub’s innovators and portfolio of projects, amplify solution-centered conversations with government and industry leaders in the space, and provide deep-dive opportunities for attendee collaboration and networking.

. [Register Now]

Energy Seminar Series

Join us online for our Energy Seminar Series. Each week, these seminars feature an expert in specific energy related topics.

Can’t make it live? [Watch the latest recorded seminars]

Opportunities

Assistant or Associate Professor in Sustainable Systems School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan [Apply here]

Congratulations to our 2023 Energy Graduate Group graduates!

WCEC Receives Best Paper Award from ASHRAE

Enroll as a Participant to Improve Your Building’s Energy Efficiency and Comfort

Energy Code Lighting Language Cleanup Initiative

EEI Seeks Post-Doctoral Researcher in Materials Decarbonization

Research Poster for a National Survey of Electrical Panels Using Citizen Scientists

Missed a Seminar?

EEI Compares Notes on Heat Pumps with Japanese Experts

WCEC Engineer Presents at the IEA International Heat Pump Conference

Missed a Seminar?

WCEC Participates in the UC Davis College of Engineering Mentoring Program

Materials Decarbonization Research Now in EEI

Energy Bites Seminar

Are Southern California students and teachers breathing clean air?

Standardized Metrics to Quantify Solar Energy-Land Relationships: A Global Systematic Review

LD+A Research Matters: Smart & Clean Exterior Lighting for the Community

Achieving Zero Emissions with More Mobility and Less Mining

Moving Forward on Grid-Friendly Campuses

Aerosol Sealing of Existing Residences

CLTC Researches Residential Energy & Automation (REA) Systems

Balancing a Battery-Powered Future With Energy Justice

Western Cooling Efficiency Center Researchers are Presenting Three Papers at This Year’s ASHRAE Conference in Georgia

New Published Paper by WCEC that Experimentally and Numerically Characterizes the Performance of a Novel Cooling and Heat Recovery System

Recently Published Conference Papers from the Western Cooling Efficiency Center

Watch Presentations From This Year’s Global Energy Managers Workshop

Free Online Event Exploring Innovations in Load Flexibility Across California – Dec. 6 & 7

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