An increasing number of state and local jurisdictions are implementing building performance reporting laws, which generate large quantities of useful data on the characteristics and resource consumption of the building stock. However, to realize the potential of these policies, the data must not only be disclosed, but put to work to drive energy savings. Under a three-year pilot, Washington DC (DC), New York City (NYC) and their partners are pioneering the use of data from building performance reporting in energy efficiency programs. To minimize the administrative burden of managing, combining, and sharing these data sets, the cities are utilizing the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) open-source Standard Energy Efficiency Data (SEED) Platform. The Putting Data to Work project team is working with efficiency program administrators to develop and implement new and innovative ways in which the data collected through benchmarking, energy audits, and related policies can be used to improve energy policies and planning, unlock data directly for market use, scale-up the market for energy efficiency services, drive competition, better target utility incentive programs, and inform measurement and verification. This paper details achievements and key findings in DC and NYC to date, including the importance of high compliance, data quality, and data cleansing in using the information collected; methods that the cities are using to apply data to drive maximum energy efficiency; and the importance of inter- and intra-agency collaboration in program success. The paper also outlines the path forward and details expected outcomes and scalability of project activities.

An increasing number of state and local jurisdictions are implementing building performance reporting laws, which generate large quantities of useful data on the characteristics and resource consumption of the building stock. However, to realize the potential of these policies, the data must not only be disclosed, but put to work to drive energy savings. Under a three-year pilot, Washington DC (DC), New York City (NYC) and their partners are pioneering the use of data from building performance reporting in energy efficiency programs. To minimize the administrative burden of managing, combining, and sharing these data sets, the cities are utilizing the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) open-source Standard Energy Efficiency Data (SEED) Platform. The Putting Data to Work project team is working with efficiency program administrators to develop and implement new and innovative ways in which the data collected through benchmarking, energy audits, and related policies can be used to improve energy policies and planning, unlock data directly for market use, scale-up the market for energy efficiency services, drive competition, better target utility incentive programs, and inform measurement and verification. This paper details achievements and key findings in DC and NYC to date, including the importance of high compliance, data quality, and data cleansing in using the information collected; methods that the cities are using to apply data to drive maximum energy efficiency; and the importance of inter- and intra-agency collaboration in program success. The paper also outlines the path forward and details expected outcomes and scalability of project activities.

An increasing fraction of residential end-use loads operates on direct current (DC), allowing the direct use of DC from onsite DC sources (Photovoltaics, battery storage), thus avoiding the energy losses from converting DC power to alternating current (AC) and back to DC. Earlier research has shown that essentially all residential electricity end uses can be DC-compatible and are more efficient than their AC counterparts. Direct-DC power systems can provide energy and cost savings in the residential built environment (including net zero energy homes), in which electricity is generated, distributed, and consumed in DC. However, one of the main barriers to the adoption of DC distribution in buildings is the immaturity of the DC-ready appliance market. We conduct a comprehensive market and cost assessment of the current DC-ready appliance market for the dominant residential end-use applications. We then examine the growing market for DC appliances in off-grid applications to extract relevant product and market trends that may influence grid-connected environments. We also analyze the energy efficiency potential of DC-ready appliances taking into account power supply losses and their coincidence of usage with DC generation from PV or battery storage. Based on these analyses, we offer recommendations on the next steps towards the development of a DC-ready appliance market.

The Daya Bay experiment consists of functionally identical antineutrino detectors immersed in pools of ultrapure water in three well-separated underground experimental halls near two nuclear reactor complexes. These pools serve both as shields against natural, low-energy radiation, and as water Cherenkov detectors that efficiently detect cosmic muons using arrays of photomultiplier tubes. Each pool is covered by a plane of resistive plate chambers as an additional means of detecting muons. Design, construction, operation, and performance of these muon detectors are described.