Materials research and development needs to enable efficient and electrified buildings

Abstract

Because of the complexity of modern buildings—with many interconnected materials, components, and systems—fully electrifying buildings will require targeted R&D and efficient coordination across those material, component, and system levels. Because buildings that consume the smallest amount of energy are easier to electrify, energy efficiency is a crucial step toward fully electrified buildings. Materials advances will play an important role in both reducing the energy intensity of buildings and electrifying their remaining energy use. Materials are currently being explored, discovered, synthesized, evaluated, optimized, and implemented across many building components, including solid-state lighting; dynamic windows and opaque envelopes; cold climate heat pumps; thermal energy storage; heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC); refrigeration; non-vapor compression HVAC; and more. In this article, we review the current state-of-the-art of materials for various buildings end uses and discuss R&D challenges and opportunities for both efficiency and electrification. Graphical abstract

Advanced Materials and Additive Manufacturing for Phase Change Thermal Energy Storage and Management: A Review

“…In these applications, the PCM is charged and discharged directly by the thermal equipment (e.g., vapor compression system or electric resistance heat) to shift electric loads associated with each thermal end use. [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] A common dynamic application is the use of campus-scale cold storage, using large chillers with ice or chilled water as the storage medium. [40] While this is a cost-effective TES solution for campus systems and large commercial buildings, there is a need to integrate TES into smaller, modular building systems, as all residential buildings and most commercial building floor space are conditioned by smaller packaged air conditioners and heat pumps.…”