Current Major Research Topics

	Buildings as Networks — Future Building Networks.		Energy Star program support — Computers, Displays, Imaging Equipment, and Small Network Equipment.
	Audio/Video Inter-Device Power Control.		Local Power Distribution - "Nanogrids".

Other Current Projects / Interests

• Energy Reporting over Internet Protocol networks.  IETF Energy Management Working Group
• Lighting Control User Interface Standards Concept — Initial Project (LBNL/CLTC) Final Report (Sept. 2010); slides presented at EEDAL 2011
• Low-power mode residential energy consumption (almost 15% of California residential electricity is products in some low-power mode; about 2/3 electronics).
  • First estimate (2004): Developing and Testing Low Power Mode Measurement Methods
  • Updated estimate (2008): L ow-Power Mode Energy Consumption in California Homes
• Low-power mode policy and regulation.
  • European Union EuP Lot 26 'Network Standby': Comments prepared for CLASP on Tasks 1-7 (Jan 2011) and Comments prepared for CLASP on Tasks 8 (May 2011)
  • Policy needs and approaches for Network Standby (report for IEA-4E): Standby Power and Low Energy Networks - issues and directions
  • October 2010 APEC standby conference: Presentations
  • EEDAL paper on Network connectivity and low-power mode energy consumption (2009)
  • Slides presented at EEDAL 2011 on the Network Standby
• Taxonomy of electronic and miscellaneous products (2006)
• Using Existing Networks For Energy Purposes, 2-page discussion paper.
• Service Provider Pays — how to save more set-top box energy use more easily.
• Network equipment energy use - U.S. total estimate for 2008

Select Talks

• Electronics, Networks, and Energy, IEEE Conference on Consumer Electronics (ICCE), January 10, 2011
• Proxying: Reducing PC energy use with network technology — EEDN Seminar , September 10, 2010. 1 slide/page PDF or 6 slides/page PDF
• What the Real World Tells Us about Saving Energy in Electronics — Symposium on Energy Efficient Electronic Systems (E3S) -- CITRIS / UCB , June 11, 2009
• Linux, Energy, and Networks: "Saving Large Amounts of Energy With Network Connectivity Proxying" — Linux Collaborative Summit, April 9, 2009
• ICT, Networks, and Energy: The Energy Perspective — OFC / NFOEC conference, March 22, 2009
• Digital Networks: Energy and Beyond — LBNL/EETD noon Seminar, January 9, 2009 (at actual seminar, only electronics slides shown)

Local Power Distribution - Nanogrids

Today, most electricity use occurs within a single "pool" of power provided by the utility grid, much like the U.S. phone system was a single managed entity.  An alternative is to move to a networked model of electricity distribution, particularly within buildings.  We call this "Local Power Distribution", with the smallest unit within this the "Nanogrid".

• IEEE Computer "Green IT" Column, Think Globally, Distribute Power Locally: The Promise of Nanogrids, September 2012.
• Presentation slides on Dynamic Nanogrid Concepts from the DOD Advanced Microgrid Concepts and Technologies Workshop, June 7-8, 2012.  (a version of this also presented at the ACEEE 2012 Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, August 15, 2012
• Paper on Nanogrids: Evolving our electricity systems from the bottom up (May, 2010). Darnell Green Building Power Forum.  Also, slides for the presentation.

Buildings as Networks

A large amount of future energy savings in buildings is only possible through closely matching the energy services delivered to occupants to what they need and desire at each particular point in time (and as informed by prices).  This is only possible by highly dynamic, effective, functional, and robust future building networks, which are in turn only possible through adopting the goal of Universal Interoperability. 

This needs to be the basis of a globally standard network architecture for future building networks.  Just as the Internet was not an evolutionary step from existing common information networks, but rather introduced many new concepts, future building networks need to be designed from the ground up, not by adapting existing controls technologies.  As with the Internet, we should expect this to enable future functionalities for buildings that we have not even imagined today.

• Beyond the Smart Grid: Building Networks - (paper May, 2010)
• Networks in Buildings: Which Path Forward?.   ACEEE Summer Study Paper Paper.   See also the slide presentation for this listed below.   This incorporates most of the content of the draft discussion paper Necessary design infrastructure for energy-efficient networked buildings (February 12, 2008). 
• Buildings as Networks: Danger, Opportunity, and Guiding Principles for Energy Efficiency.  From a workshop on "Digital Networks", held at the International Energy Agency on July 6, 2007.  This was a background discussion document. For the full workshop presentations, see the "Digital Networks" section (bottom fourth) of the Digital Networks workshop page.  A revised set of Guiding Principles from the workshop as Guidelines for Digital Networks.
• Future Networking of Displays — speculation on where technology and energy use is headed (excerpted from EPA / Energy Star slides for Displays Stakeholder Meeting Sept. 25, 2008).

Presentations

• House of the Further Future: the 'Networked' House — LBNL Science at the Theater, May 10, 2010. Video available on YouTube
• The Case "Against" the Smart Grid — at I4energy Seminar Series - CITRIS -- CITRIS / UCB , October 2, 2009. Video available on YouTube
• Networks, Standards, and Energy: The Energy Perspective — IEA/IEC/ISO Workshop on Standards and Climate Change, March 16-17, 2009
• Building Networks for the 22nd Century — EPRI AMI/HAN work group, February 13, 2009
• Networks in Buildings: Which Path Forward? — 2008 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, August, 2008
• Thermostats. See a recent talk on Climate control for 2020 — T-stats as a digital network presented October 15, 2007 to a workshop on thermostats at LBNL

Past Projects

Power Management Controls — standards for terms, symbols, indicators, etc. to increase power management savings.

Materials Use / Consumption

This is no longer an active research area of mine.

Paper End-Use Efficiency — practical information on reducing paper use. This web site dates from Fall, 1998, but much of the information is still applicable. Web site currently off-line

Consumption Efficiency in general — improving materials consumption to reduce industrial production and increase quality of life.

I work for Alan Meier. We are part of the Building Technology and Urban Systems Department.

Last Modified: February 20, 2013.