Use & Efficiency

Buildings

Increasing Building Energy Efficiency Through Advances in Materials

Ron Judkoff^a1

^a1 National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA

Abstract

Materials advances could help to reduce the energy and environmental impacts of buildings. Globally, buildings use about 20% of primary energy and account for 20% of atmospheric emissions. Building energy consumption emanates from a variety of sources, some of which are related to the building envelope or fabric, some to the equipment in the building, and some to both. Opportunities for reducing energy use in buildings through innovative materials are therefore numerous, but there is no one system, component, or material whose improvement alone can solve the building energy problem. Many of the loads in a building are interactive, and this complicates cost/benefit analysis for new materials, components, and systems. Moreover, components and materials for buildings must meet stringent durability and cost/performance criteria to last the long service lifetimes of buildings and compete successfully in the marketplace.

Ron Judkoff can be reached at the Buildings and Thermal Systems Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO 80401, USA; tel. 303–384–7520, fax 303–384–7540, and e-mail ron_judkoff@ nrel.gov.

His awards include the R&D 100 Award in 2005 for development of the TREAT with SUNREL simulation software, in collaboration with New York State ERDA. Judkoff also has received the 2001 AIA Committee on the Environment Top Ten Green Building Award for energy design of the Zion National Park Visitor Center; the ASHRAE Technology Award, frst place, in 1999 for energy design of the NREL TTF lab building; and the 1991 Federal Laboratory Consortium Award for developing a calorimetric method to rapidly evaluate the thermal performance of manufactured buildings, thereby achieving a fve-fold increase in the cost effectiveness of retrofts for the National Low-Income Weatherization Program.