Building Technologies Research and Integration Center (BTRIC)

BTRIC, in the Energy & Transportation Science Division (ETSD), focuses on research and development of new building technologies, whole-building and community integration, and improved energy management in buildings and industrial facilities during their operational phase.  Three groups make up the BTRIC:  Building Envelopes Research; Residential, Commercial & Industrial Energy Efficiency; and Whole-Building & Community Integration. 

Our work aligns with and supports the goals of several Department of Energy (DOE) programs within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).

The DOE programs we support are the Building Technologies Program, the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), the Industrial Technologies Program (ITP), the Weatherization Intergovernmental Program (WIP), and the Solar Energy Technologies Program.

Reducing the energy/carbon footprint of the nation's buildings sector is essential for tackling climate change and will be an enormous challenge. Buildings account for 43% of U.S. carbon emissions and the consumption of 39% of total primary energy, 71% electricity, and 55% natural gas. The importance of buildings is amplified because renewable energy applications such as photovoltaic energy generation, daylighting, solar water heating, and geothermal (ground-source) space conditioning and water heating are most economical when using buildings as their deployment platforms.

ORNL's work in pursuit of energy and environmental sustainability of the built environment is broadly based, addressing new and existing residential and commercial buildings.

Building Envelopes Research
The Building Envelopes Research Program develops technologies that improve the energy efficiency and environmental compatibility of residential and commercial buildings.  Our program is divided into two parts: Building Envelope Research, which focuses on the structural elements that enclose a building (walls, roofs, and foundations), and Materials Research, which concentrates on the materials within the envelope systems (such as insulation). The building envelope research provides the thermal barrier between the indoor and outdoor environment, and its elements are the key determinants of the energy requirements that result from the climate where the building is located.

Residential, Commercial, and Industrial Energy Efficiency
The Residential, Commercial, and Industrial Energy Efficiency Group works to optimize the energy performance of buildings and industrial facilities through applications research, technical assistance, and technology deployment. The team’s comprehensive knowledge of buildings and energy use spans multi-building sites, whole-building systems, system components, and multi-level interactions. The team helps federal and private-sector customers conserve energy through cost-effective energy-management tools and financed energy projects (through FEMP) and strategies such as benchmarking, building retro-commissioning, and industrial facility assessments (through ITP).

Whole-Building and Community Integration
The Whole-Building and Community Integration Group supports DOE's goal to develop cost-effective zero-energy homes by 2020 and zero-energy buildings by 2025.  The group pursues these goals through a research focus on sustainable whole-building and community integration that includes international technology developments and sustainability approaches, and using green buildings and communities as test-beds and seed markets to prove the deep-savings energy efficiency of transportation, distributed energy, and grid-integration technologies, as well as solar (through the Solar Technologies Program) and other renewables technologies.

BTRIC User Facility
The Building Technology Research and Integration Center User Facility at ORNL—a National User Facility—has a rich record of achievements accomplished through collaborations with private industry, other research institutions, and utilities.  BTI won a DOE Energy 100 Award for refrigeration R&D in 2001—judged the second most important achievement in DOE’s 23-year history—along with four other Energy 100 Awards for the Energy Efficient Large Commercial Chiller, CFC/HCFC Alternatives for the Buildings Sector, the National Energy Auditing Tool (NEAT), and Durable Energy-Efficient Lighting for Public Housing. BTC has also won many R&D 100 awards.