Seminar

Seminar: ORNL Research for Energy Efficient Buildings

Presented by Dr. Joshua New, Oak Ridge National Lab

Friday, March 2, 2012

2:00 PM, Driftmier Auditorium, University of Georgia, Athens, GA

Abstract: The US consumes more energy than any other nation on the planet…over 20%, costing ~$220 billion annually. Residential and commercial buildings consume almost 40% of US primary energy, ~67% of the electrical energy. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has a strong history in the research, development, and field demonstration of new energy efficient technologies for building envelopes and equipment in full-scale demonstration facilities throughout the United States. Sensor data from these experiments are typically analyzed through the process of “spreadsheet science”, but modern computational technologies are now being employed for data consolidation, curation, analysis, and visualization. Ongoing research will be discussed regarding long-standing problems in the field as it pertains to autonomous calibration for software building input models to match measured data.

Dr. Joshua New is a computer scientist joining Oak Ridge’s R&D staff in 2009 and is a member of the Whole-Building and Community Integration (WBCI) Group of the Building Technology Research Integration Center (BTRIC).  He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Tennessee (UTK) in 2009, his M.S. in Computer Systems and Software Design and his B.S. with a double major in Computer Science and Mathematics with a Physics minor from Jacksonville State University (JSU). His work experience includes graduate research assistantships at both the UTK and JSU, 3 research internships with ORNL, several ORNL/UTK collaborative projects and developed special-purpose computer systems for Vital Images and Ft. McClellan. He is an active member of IEEE, ACM, and ASHRAE.

Dr. Som Shrestha is a R&D Staff Scientist within the Building Envelopes Research Group at Building Technologies Research and Integration Center. His research is focused on experimental and analytical study of energy performance of building envelope and systems. He earned his Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering at Iowa State University. His M.Sc. thesis involved a combination of Energy Plus modeling and the development of a carefully controlled experiment for empirical validation of the building energy simulation software – EnergyPlus. As a part of PhD research, Dr. Shrestha evaluated performance of Carbon-Dioxide Sensors used for demand controlled ventilation system. He is an active member of Tau Beta Pi, ASHRAE, ASME, and IBPSA. He is also an ASHRAE certified Building Energy Modeling Professional (BEMP).