Building Efficiency Targeting Tool for Energy Retrofits (BETTER)
Established in 1963, the R&D 100 Awards is the only S&T (science and technology) awards competition that recognizes new commercial products, technologies and materials for their technological significance that are available for sale or license. The R&D 100 Awards have long been a benchmark of excellence for industry sectors as diverse as telecommunications, high-energy physics, software, manufacturing, and biotechnology. This 2021 R&D 100 winner is listed below, along with its respective category.
Category: Software/Services
Developers: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Co-Developers: Johnson Controls
United States
Product Description:Buildings represent 40% of the world’s primary energy use and are the second-largest source of carbon dioxide emissions. However, global building energy use can be reduced by one-half if energy efficiency (EE) equipment and systems are implemented at scale. To speed those reductions, the Building Efficiency Targeting Tool for Energy Retrofits (BETTER), developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, enables building operators worldwide to quickly, easily identify the most effective cost-saving EE measures using readily available building and energy data. Its novel open-source, data-driven analytical engine and user-friendly web application allow users to automatically analyze those data in response to weather conditions. With minimal computing resources and minimal data entry, it benchmarks a building’s or portfolio’s energy use against peers in a single run; quantifies energy, cost and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction potential for investors; and recommends EE improvements for individual buildings or portfolios, targeting specific energy savings levels. No other tool so comprehensively analyzes buildings and portfolios with such ease. If fully implemented, BETTER could reduce about 0.92 quads of site energy use and 165.8 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030.
Developers: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Co-Developers: Johnson Controls
United States
Product Description:Buildings represent 40% of the world’s primary energy use and are the second-largest source of carbon dioxide emissions. However, global building energy use can be reduced by one-half if energy efficiency (EE) equipment and systems are implemented at scale. To speed those reductions, the Building Efficiency Targeting Tool for Energy Retrofits (BETTER), developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, enables building operators worldwide to quickly, easily identify the most effective cost-saving EE measures using readily available building and energy data. Its novel open-source, data-driven analytical engine and user-friendly web application allow users to automatically analyze those data in response to weather conditions. With minimal computing resources and minimal data entry, it benchmarks a building’s or portfolio’s energy use against peers in a single run; quantifies energy, cost and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction potential for investors; and recommends EE improvements for individual buildings or portfolios, targeting specific energy savings levels. No other tool so comprehensively analyzes buildings and portfolios with such ease. If fully implemented, BETTER could reduce about 0.92 quads of site energy use and 165.8 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030.
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