The State of California has an ambitious goal to install at least 6 million heat pumps by 2030. To address this need, several novel “micro” heat pumps are emerging in the consumer market that offer the ability to provide space heating and are powered by common household 120V electrical service...

With rising housing costs in California, the prevalence of affordable manufactured housing has been growing, especially in areas affected by recent wildfires. Many homeowners find manufactured housing to be a means to get them back in a home much faster, and much more affordably. For years,...

This project will study a Thermal Energy Storage System (TESS) that utilizes phase change material (PCM) inserted in the supply duct combined with smart controller optimizing for compressor limiting operations during peak demand periods. The TESS is actively managed to get the maximum benefit by...

Meeting the state’s climate and clean air goals requires electrification of the existing residential housing stock. Residential electrification is often erroneously assumed to require electrical panel and service upgrades in dwellings that currently have less than 200A of capacity. Under this...

This project will assess the decision processes of residential customers and contractors related to emergency water heater replacement (e.g., What priorities drive customer choices? What priorities drive contractor recommendations?) and technical solutions for emergency water heater replacements...

The proposed study will evaluate emerging technologies designed to remove a majority of containments in dairy wastewater efficiently, allowing facilities to expand their reuse of wastewater in other areas such as drip irrigation, drinking water, facility maintenance, etc. The technologies help...

The 120V heat pump water heater (HPWH) has the potential to vastly increase customer adoption of heat pump water heaters by reducing installation costs. The 120V units plug directly into existing shared or dedicated circuits at the WH location, eliminating additional electrical wiring and/or...

Indirect evaporative cooling can provide cooling at much higher efficiency in California climates compared to the vapor compression cooling systems currently used in most buildings. In the past, these indirect evaporative cooling systems have been add-ons to roof top packaged units, have required...

This project will evaluate new applications of aerosol sealing, a product used to seal buildings primiarily in new construction, to sealing in existing homes. Previous studies have shown that half of the leakage in new California homes occurs through the attic so addressing leakage at the attic...

One of the greatest underutilized opportunities for energy savings in buildings through retrofits and retro-commissioning is optimized HVAC system sequence of operations (SOO). A recent EPIC Best In Class research project funded by the California Energy Commission showed that implementation of...