WASHINGTON — The U.S Department of Energy (DOE) has announced nearly $8 million to support research and development of next generation HVAC technologies. The R&D will focus on developing regionally appropriate HVAC solutions that would offer significant potential energy savings for new and existing buildings, and on developing innovative approaches that could replace current vapor compression HVAC technologies.

Currently, HVAC systems account for the largest proportion of energy used in buildings, consuming almost 14 quadrillion British thermal units (quads) of primary energy annually — or nearly 30 percent of all energy used in commercial and residential buildings, said DOE. Developing non-vapor-compression HVAC systems could potentially lead to an estimated 40 percent primary energy savings over current technologies.

In addition to focusing on improving the efficiency of technologies using established ratings as measured by the energy efficiency rating (EER) and/or the seasonal energy efficiency rating (SEER), the research is aimed at developing technologies or systems that improve partial load efficiency, as HVAC systems operate at partial load most of the time.

DOE seeks proposals from businesses, universities, nonprofits, and national laboratories. To learn more about this funding opportunity announcement, click here.

Publication date: 10/13/2014

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