2010 R&D 100 Winner
Residential buildings consume 22% of all the energy used in the United States. Homeowners looking to save energy—and money—now have a custom tool to develop a comprehensive energy plan. Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, Calif., developed a free Web tool, Home Energy Saver (HES), licensed by Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Wash., as Hohm, built on a building energy simulation program. Users can generate efficiency recommendations by answering 15 questions or obtain more detailed results by entering details about construction materials, appliances, rated efficiencies and hours of use, occupancy levels, and more. Estimates and suggested improvements are made for heating, cooling, water heating, major appliances, lighting, and miscellaneous equipment.
HES uses DOE-2, an energy analysis and thermal load simulation program, to calculate heating equipment and thermal distribution efficiencies, infiltration, and thermostat management. Actual electricity tariffs provide more accurate use calculations.
About one-third of HES users made energy-efficient improvements to their homes based on recommendations from the Web site.
Technology
Home energy use calculator
Developers
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Microsoft Corporation
Development Team
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| Troy Batterberry, Microsoft Corp. |
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| Rich Brown, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |
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| Evan Mills, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |
The Home Energy Saver/Hohm Development Team:
Troy Batterberry, Microsoft Corp.
From Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory:
Celina Atkinson
Peter Biermayer
Chris Bolduc
Norm Bourassa
Jordan Brinkman
Rich Brown
Kerey Carter
Mai Sue Chang
Allan Chen
Jesse Cohen
Katie Coughlin
Arabella Crawford
Joe Huang
Sondra Jarvis
Steve Konopacki
Jon Koomey
Joanne Lambert
Jim Lutz
Anthony Ma
Eli Marienthal
Nance Matson
Michael McNeil
Evan Mills
Robin Mitchell
Mithra Moezzi
Bruce Nordman
Rolland Otto
Brian Pon
Hongjie Qu
Leo Rainer
Madeline Rosenthal
Marla Sanchez
Michael Seelig
Z Smith
Kath Straub
Peter Thiery
Gabor Torok
Iain Walker
Jeff Warner
Richard White
