Welcome to the PNNL Lab Homes!
We Want Your Ideas!
Do you have an idea for a great technology we should test in the PNNL Lab Homes? Let us know!
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory "Lab Homes" project is the first of its kind in the Pacific Northwest region. PNNL has purchased two custom factory-built double-wide homes and set them up, side by side, on the PNNL campus to conduct energy research.
PNNL, working with multiple sponsors, use the identical 1,500 square-foot "Lab Homes" for experiments focused on reducing energy use and peak demand. In each study, one home, the Baseline Home, serves as a control typifying an average existing home in the inland eastern Pacific Northwest region, while the other, the Experimental Home, is used to test a new technology. Occupancy is simulated in each home to account for human activity.
The Lab Homes serve as a project test-bed for PNNL and its research partners who aim to achieve highly energy-efficient homes. The homes are fully instrumented with controllable circuits, dual heating systems, environmental sensors, and a weather station. Researchers and sponsors can access results and reports as new energy saving technologies are tested.
The first experiment investigated the performance of highly insulating (R-5) windows. Other recent research is centered on smart appliances.
