High humidity poses a significant challenge in modern fully enclosed greenhouses and state-of-the-art vertical farming setups, fostering the growth of fungal diseases such as botrytis and impeding the plant transpiration process causing adverse impacts on plant health and growth. One study...

Water heating accounts for 40 percent of natural gas consumption in the residential sector, representing 7 percent of the state’s total GHG emissions (E3 2019). Water heating energy use in multifamily buildings with 5 or more units accounts for 32 percent of total energy use based on a 2015...

Standard designs for large commercial buildings rely on separate gas-fired hydronic heating and chilled water loops. This technology has slowly been refined with incremental energy efficiency improvements over several decades. The HVAC industry has not yet had enough time to establish how to serve...

Air-to-water heat pumps (AWHPS) have been gaining traction worldwide in countries where hydronic heating is the predominant HVAC option., With the United States increasing national focus on decarbonization of the building sector, the AWHPs market still trails behind other more popular HVAC options....

This proposed CalNEXT project will develop a test method to validate that control programming is consistent with the control sequences in ASHRAE Guideline 36 (G36) High-Performance Sequences of Operation for HVAC Systems. The eventual goal is for the test method to evolve into an ASHRAE standard...

120-volt plug-in heat pump water heaters (HPWHs) are a proven, market-ready technology offering significant decarbonization potential as emergency replacements in the small medium business market. It is estimated that 90% of water heating replacements occur on an emergency basis. Without an easy,...

The proposed project will evaluate patent-pending compressor controller technology through a field demonstration. The field demonstration entails installing the technology onto an existing VRF system with inverter-driven compressor to understand its potential energy savings. Technology is...

Smart electrical panels, an emerging product category, can provide a number of energy efficiency and electrification benefits to single family residential buildings. These panels replace or augment typical electrical panels and include monitoring and control capabilities of each individual...

A previous CEC funded project ( https://cltc.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk12206/files/media/documents/LDA-June-2022-Edit.pdf) has demonstrated the potential of a fiber optic, solar-tracking core daylight system to deliver natural lighting into the building at ~620 lumens/watt at a maximum length...

The proposed project is a demonstration of an emerging high efficiency heat pump product for multifamily space conditioning applications. This project will demonstrate the application of Double Ducted Packaged Terminal Heat Pumps (DDPTHP) in a low-income multifamily new construction project in the...