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Energy conservation, alternative energy and better building techniques
are ongoing endeavors being pursued by HAI‘s Engineering and Product
Development divisions in conjunction with several private and
government agencies.
Currently HAI and its partners have ongoing research projects
in four areas:
-
Enhanced Logic Thermostat
- “Health” Monitoring for Heating, Ventilation and Air
Conditioning (HVAC) systems
- Zero Energy Homes
- Home Energy Monitoring
Additionally, HAI participates in the
Department of Energy’s Building America
programs to develop energy solutions for new
and existing homes.
Enhanced Logic Thermostat
This patented technique involves saving energy in an
HVAC system without setting it back. Under certain circumstances,
energy savings can be had without risk of making the home uncomfortable,
“stuffy” or allowing significant changes in temperature and humidity.
Ongoing research will quantify the savings and evaluate how to
best implement the technique.
“Health” monitoring of HVAC systems
Worldwide, it is safe to say that tens of millions of
heating and air-conditioning systems are not performing at
peak efficiency, for a variety of reasons. Since HVAC is a home's
single biggest energy consumer, this project seeks to advise homeowners of
a drop in performance that would otherwise go unnoticed, perhaps explained
away as rising energy prices. This can readily be accomplished with
prohibitively expensive instrumentation of the HVAC system. The goal of
this research is a way to do it reliably using minimal instrumentation and
well developed logic.
Zero Energy Homes
A Zero Energy Home (ZEH) is one that creates most or all of its energy
needs through alternative energy sources and conservation. It may use
photo-voltaic systems for electricity, solar water and space heating
and advanced construction techniques to minimize energy consumption.
One of the greatest variables is the homeowner, who needs to be aware of
what the home’s systems are doing, and in some cases, help it by
understanding when it might be best to do laundry, wash dishes, etc.
HAI has researched various displays and techniques of advising the
homeowner as well as showing them the clear rewards of their efforts
in terms of dollars saved and pollution prevented.
Home Energy Monitoring
HAI was chosen to work with the Department of Energy, having products that are the state-of-the-art in
energy monitoring currently on
the market, to design and
develop a prototype system for home energy monitoring. This initiative aims to utilize energy monitoring as a way of educating homeowners about how
they are using energy. Future directions will
include not only electrical energy use, but also consumption of other utilities such
as natural gas. Combining the monitoring system with the home’s security system
is a key component in the current research. For example, a security
monitor that also shows energy consumption might alert homeowners to an
appliance inadvertently left on before they leave the home, or call their attention to
a consumption pattern that appears out of the ordinary.
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