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IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY RECEIVES $350,000 GRANT TO STUDY IMPROVEMENTS IN BUILDING ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Release Date: 10/11/2001
Contact Information:

Note to Correspondents

As part of the ongoing effort to support President Bush's energy plan, EPA has awarded a $350,000 grant to Iowa State University to conduct research at its Ames campus on improving energy performance in buildings. This grant will provide information on improving control systems to building owners and operators, engineers and anyone determining the proper installation of mechanical or electrical equipment.

Control systems are the hardware and software that regulate the electrical (lighting, elevators, fire, security, etc.) and mechanical (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) operations of a building.

For the past two decades, commercial building energy efficiency programs have primarily focused on the technologies that go into the design of a building, such as motors, chillers, fans, boilers and lighting. This focus has resulted in improved energy performance. However, these technologies all rely upon a control system to regulate energy use. Commercial building control systems play a key role in energy efficiency, yet there has been a general lack of objective standards, testing and user guidance in this field, leading to poor performance. Less attention has been focused upon these critical controls because of software problems and the impracticality of replacing entire systems.

The object of this cooperative agreement with Iowa State is to develop specific performance and broad-based tutorial information on building controls. Manufacturer-specific performance information refers to testing and reporting of the actual real-world operating performance of equipment; broad-based tutorial information refers to educational information about a generic class of products (e.g., how to shape and program a direct digital control system for top performance).

For further technical information, contact Bill VonNeida of EPA at 202-564-9725
(von [email protected] )


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