Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The long term goal of the proposed research program is the investigation of pathways to optimal energy performance of buildings and building clusters that combine on-site energy generation from fully integrated solar energy systems with thermal energy storage, energy efficiency measures and optimal control. The short term research objectives are as follows: 1. Study and development of advanced building envelope systems that combine several functions in order to reduce cost while maximizing energy efficiency such as fenestration systems that integrate semitransparent photovoltaic layers to generate electricity while transmitting daylight and also possibly producing useful heat. 2. Study and development of predictive control strategies that optimize solar gain utilization through control of active envelope systems (such as shading and daylighting devices) to reduce peak demand for electricity while achieving good comfort. 3. Development of integrated energy design and control concepts for groups of buildings or communities so as to determine optimal pathways to reach net-zero energy while having a predictable impact on the electric grid demand profiles. The work related to the first objective will involve first exploration of the potential energy performance of different façade concepts that optimize solar energy utilization by harnessing nearly the full spectrum of sunlight to generate electricity, as daylight and the remainder as useful heat. Promising configurations will be studied through integrated energy simulations using lumped parameter thermal network models, coupled with electricity generation models for photovoltaics and daylighting models. Prototypes for innovative building envelope concepts will be tested in a large scale combined solar simulator environmental chamber laboratory. Advanced active building envelope prototypes developed under objective 1 will be used in a test-room specially constructed to test control strategies under objective 2; this test-room will be utilized to test combinations of active and passive thermal storage systems integrated in its envelope. Model-based control strategies will be developed and validated experimentally under typical simulated weather profiles. Objective 3 involves primarily building cluster energy simulation models and studies to develop optimal energy design concepts that integrate the outcomes of work from objectives 1 and 2. Major expected outcomes of the proposed research include new knowledge on the performance of advanced energy positive building systems that integrate solar energy utilization, active building envelopes and optimal operation, and mathematical models of appropriate resolution for efficient predictive operation of high performance building clusters. This knowledge, models and tools will facilitate the design of high performance net-zero energy buildings and communities.