Themes
Research Themes
BEST Center Mission:
To advance energy systems for buildings, cities, and grids to be intelligent, resilient, and efficient.
The Building Energy Smart Technologies (BEST) Center brings together universities and industries in transforming the building industry through the development and adoption of sustainable and intelligent technologies.
The BEST Center is supporting the U.S. building industry’s efforts to meet increasingly stringent building energy-efficiency regulations and society’s expectations for improved sustainability, resiliency, and security in communities and cities. The center aims to educate and train a skilled and diverse workforce to address current and future employment needs for the U.S. building industry.
To cover the rich and wide diversity of the building industry needs, the center has six research themes:
1. Smart Building Materials and Systems
2. Smart Building Energy Systems
3. Integrated Energy Generation and Storage Systems
4. Smart Cities
5. Smart Grid Systems
6. Building Retrofit Applications
1. Smart Building Materials and Systems
Smart building materials and systems can dynamically adapt building shells and envelope systems to changes in indoor and outdoor environments and effectively meet structural and efficiency requirements.
2. Smart Building Energy Systems
Smart building energy systems enhance the energy efficiency of various buildings systems and equipment to meet occupants’ comfort and health needs and increase their productivity.
3. Integrated Energy Generation and Storage Systems
Integrated energy generation and storage systems can be seamlessly integrated into buildings envelops such as solar power, combined heat and power systems, and thermo-electric generators.
4. Smart Cities
Smart cities integrate utilization of energy efficiency technologies and renewable energy resources to improve urban design and operation.
5. Smart Grid Systems
Smart grid systems can be used to operate an increasing number of distributed energy resources to exchange optimally and efficiently energy between the electric grid and buildings.
6. Building Retrofit Applications
Building retrofit applications improve energy efficiency and operation of existing buildings, including upgrades of the electrical, lighting, envelop, thermal systems, and controls in an existing building.
