Potential Research Areas in Residential Energy Storage for NIST’s Engineering Laboratory

Abstract

This paper recommends research that is required to develop and, thus, enable cost effective, residential electricity storage systems for renewable energy. As residential electricity generation from renewable sources becomes more prevalent, residential energy storage will become an important factor in ensuring the stability of the electrical grid; grid operators will be able to timeshift demand to smooth peaks and match supply capacity. However, local storage of excess energy from renewable sources is currently not economically attractive due to the long payback period required to recover capital costs. NIST Engineering Laboratory is well positioned to make significant contributions to the relatively neglected field of residential energy storage. Possession of the NIST's Net-Zero Energy Residential Test Facility makes it possible to work collaboratively with other laboratories within NIST to demonstrate field performance of new ideas in energy storage technologies such as batteries, super capacitors, superconducting magnets, and hydrogen storage. In addition, EL staff and facilities are well matched to projects in Phase Change Material (PCM) facades and PCM evaporators, pumped hydro, solar water heaters and cost/benefit analyses. Potential project ideas are provided for these areas of research.1 Corresponding author. Tel./fax: (301) 975-5282/(301) 975-8973. E-mail address: Mark.Kedzierski@NIST.gov iii This publication is free of charge from: http://dx.

Design of a direct-contact thermal energy storage heat exchanger for the NIST net-zero residential test facility

“…A PCM with low vapor pressure and that was immiscible with R134a (and presumably R410A) was identified. Kedzierski et al (2014) identified a remote/discrete PCM design for PCM storage with a residential ASHP. The purpose of the present investigation is to design a DCHEX for discrete PCM energy storage for use in air conditioning NIST's NZERTF.…”