Building Efficiency

The buildings sector consumes more energy than any other sector of the U.S. economy. Energy use by the buildings sector represents more than 70 percent of electricity and over 50 percent of natural gas consumption. Yet, our nation can profoundly transform the energy footprint of the built environment and lay the foundation for a sustainable energy future. A sustainable energy future would benefit our nation by reducing the environmental consequences of energy use and by strengthening America's energy security. Achieving this potential will require accelerating market adoption of today's proven energy-efficient technologies and researching new technologies that will drive up performance and drive down costs.

In support of the Department of Energy's Building Technologies mission, Argonne National Laboratory is working to significantly improve the energy efficiency of existing and new buildings through the development, demonstration, and deployment of technologies, strategies, and practices. Most of this work is being done in partnership with private industry, universities, associations, and utilities. Our strategy of collaboration will make our research results directly available to the energy efficiency market.

Argonne is a member of the National Laboratory Collaborative for Buildings Technologies. Other members include Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

For more information or to discuss collaborative research opportunities please e-mail Leah Guzowski, Manager of Argonne's Building Technologies RD&D Program.

The Vision
To achieve exceptional building energy efficiency in the Midwest and be a lead innovator in advancing the sustainability, adaptability, and productivity of the built environment.

The Mission
To apply our unique mix of world-class science, engineering, design, and analysis to deliver transformational market and technology solutions that significantly increase energy efficiency and life-cycle performance of the built environment.

Research
In order to achieve aggressive energy reduction, Argonne's buildings energy efficiency research focuses on 1) technology development, with an emphasis on sensors and controls; 2) market transformation involving regional partnerships; and 3) integrated market analysis, including finance, risk, decision, and life-cycle analysis.

	Proactive Energy Management Systems
	Loyola University Commercial Building Partnership
	Retrofitting the Chicago Loop
	Agent-Based Model of the U.S. Commercial Building Sector
	Commercial Buildings and the Electric Grid
	Measurement and Verification of Building Energy Savings
	Scalable Energy Retrofit Analysis

Argonne is deploying multidisciplinary capabilities to address the challenges of the built environment:

• Energy, environment, and economics
• Information sciences
• Complex adaptive systems
• Optimization
• Life cycle analysis
• Materials by design
• Technology transfer
• Sensors and controls
• Sensor technology
• PROTECT -- early warning crisis management system
• Atmospheric instrumentation

September 2012