Dr. Kurt Roth is the Director of Fraunhofer USA Center for Sustainable Energy Systems' (CSE) Building Energy Systems Group. Under his leadership, the team develops, analyzes, tests, evaluates, and demonstrates energy-saving building technologies. Through his research, Dr. Roth has led several U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-funded studies to assess energy savings and commercialization potentials of HVAC, building controls and diagnostics, and IT technologies. He has also led several studies to characterize building energy consumption.

Q: WHY IS ACCELERATED DEVELOPMENT AND COMMERCIALIZATION OF ENERGY-SAVING BUILDING TECHNOLOGIES SO IMPORTANT? 

A: Simply put, buildings have a large impact on our environment. Buildings of all kinds-homes, businesses, schools, grocery stores, and others-and their heating, lighting, cooling, and other operations account for about 40 percent of primary energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. Homeowners and commercial property owners and managers can substantially lower overhead costs associated with operations by adopting advanced building energy technologies and practices. They also play an important role in the ongoing work to meeting state, regional and national clean air objectives. 

Q: WHAT TECHNOLOGIES DO YOU SEE AS KEY TO FULFILLING THE PROMISE OF MORE ENERGY-EFFICIENT BUILDINGS? 

A: There are a many exciting emerging technologies, and I am particularly interested in using new data from connected devices to generate new insights into building performance that are customized to each building and its occupants. That said, for any of them to have a significant impact, widespread consumer acceptance and adoption is essential. Typically, that required a combination of a technology or practice that offers compelling non-energy benefits, as well cost-effective energy savings. One example is the recent phenomenon surrounding 'smart' thermostats, which have captured a great deal of public attention. Research finds that people typically adopt them because they are convenient and are often considered "cool". From an energy perspective, that technology can help people save energy by optimizing their thermostat schedules, while also enabling control of air-conditioning systems to support the electric grid. I'm excited about our ongoing research project with Eversource and National Grid to use the data from the thermostats in new ways, specifically to remotely and automatically identify homes high-value insulation and air-sealing opportunities and to perform ongoing quality control of retrofits after they have been implemented. We're also looking at ways to use data fusion, for example, combining thermostat data with electric meter data or occupancy data, to identify and recommend customized operational and retrofit opportunities to people. 

Q: WHAT'S THE UNIQUE ROLE FRAUNHOFER CSE PLAYS IN DEVELOPING, VALIDATING, AND COMMERCIALIZING ENERGY-EFFICIENT BUILDING TECHNOLOGIES? 

A: Our interdisciplinary team performs independent research, development, and demonstration projects on a full range of building energy systems and technologies. Our research is informed by architecture and engineering design, construction practices, and, crucially, the goals and motivations of people who live and work in buildings. If these systems don't work for people, i.e., if they don't help people achieve what they want, their acceptance and effectiveness will very likely be low. We focus on the building systems responsible for most building energy consumption, primarily heating, ventilation, air conditioning and lighting. Recently, our focus has expanded beyond energy to also include application of buildings to support the electric grid. For example, we're in the middle of a three-year development and demonstration project with National Grid to optimally control building systems and dispatch electric energy storage to enable integration of large quantities of solar PV with the electric grid. At the residential scale, we're investigating what drives - and what inhibits - peoples' acceptance of automated load control of so-called connected devices in their homes. The insights we glean help utilities design effective programs that will have high participation levels and, thus, benefits for the grid and all electric customers.

Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems (CSE) | www.cse.fraunhofer.org