With more and more emphasis on “green” buildings and carbon offsets, discovering where energy is being lost is an important component of building construction and maintenance.

Now, because of a $1.5 million grant from the Department of Energy, Dr. Michael Hargather and New Mexico Tech researchers will lead an effort to develop an innovative real-time air leakage visualizer system to identify locations in a building envelope where energy is being lost. Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Air Barrier Association of America and Joulea will collaborate with NMT on the project.

The research will develop new methods to identify air leakage sites on the inside and outside of a building, which can then be sealed in retrofits to significantly reduce energy consumption.  Building air leakage contributes to unnecessary energy consumption with an estimated four quads (1,172 terawatt-hour) of energy loss per year in the U.S. alone. This loss is equivalent to one quarter of all energy usage in one year in the country. Identifying and repairing leaks through the building envelope can improve the energy efficiency, comfort, air quality and moisture durability of the building stock.

The ALV system will include cameras and infrared imaging to map the interior and exterior building environments to find air leakage sites.  The ALV will include manual and drone-based platforms for quickly scanning large buildings inside and out.  The ALV Onboard image processing capability will produce real-time background-oriented schlieren (BOS) images of air flows. 

“BOS is a digital method to visualize the density variations in air.  It is the same as when you see ‘road shimmer’ driving down a hot road in the summer, only here we will use digital cameras to measure the background distortion and quantify the hot or cold air leaking from a building,” said principal investigator Michael Hargather, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at NM Tech. 

The funding comes from DOE’s BENEFIT program (Buildings Energy Efficiency Frontiers and Innovation Technologies), in which $46 million was awarded to 29 projects across 15 states to develop advanced technologies and retrofitting that will facilitate efficient, affordable, sustainable and resilient building operation.

This project was chosen through a competitive selection process that rigorously evaluated applications on their technical merit.

 

Image and cutline to accompany release:

Image 1: Road shimmer on a hot day produces “thermal plumes” which distort the appearance of the horizon. In the same way, air leakage can be detected in buildings with sophisticated equipment and methods. In this image, two images of a candle, (a) before it is lit and (b) after it is lit, are compared via image processing and results in (c), which is a background-oriented schlieren (BOS) image of the candle plume. 

 

About New Mexico Tech

New Mexico Tech, also known as New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, is a STEM-focused university in centrally located Socorro, New Mexico. Ranking high in the regional and national standings, this community of scholars and educators is dedicated to research, innovation and education that will meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. NMT is recognized by the Department of Education as a “Hispanic-serving institution” (HSI), with more than 40 percent of its undergraduate population identifying as Hispanic. New Mexico Tech is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission as a doctoral degree-granting university.

 

All media inquiries, please contact Jay Ann Cox, Communications Specialist, 575-835-5260, jay.cox@nmt.edu.