Local Thermal Management Systems To Reduce Building Energy Consumption

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The Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy (ARPA-E) intends to issue a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), soliciting applications for financial assistance to fund new technologies that enable localized thermal envelopes around building occupants. These technologies are expected to reduce the nation?s energy consumption by widening the heating and cooling setpoints in buildings, while maintaining the thermal comfort of building occupants. This FOA represents a radical shift in thermal comfort management practices from today?s centralized building systems to more distributed and localized solutions. Previously, ARPA-E held a workshop on this topic. More information on the workshop can be found at http://arpa-e.energy.gov/?q=arpa-e-events/personal-thermal-management-reduce-building-energy-consumption-workshop. Currently, ARPA-E anticipates that there will be three specific areas of interest indentified in the FOA as follows: (1) on-body wearable technologies, (2) near range (<1 m) energy transfer, and (3) direct energy transfer to the human body from a distance (>1 m). In addition, system level solutions that employ any combinations of the three areas are of interest as well. ARPA-E envisions supporting a broad range of technologies that can achieve these objectives. Expertise in the following Technical Areas may be useful in responding to the FOA: human physiology, thermal management, materials science, building heating and cooling systems, device fabrication, directed energy, testing, and modeling. For wearable technologies, teams are encouraged to have participation from apparel designers and experts in consumer product adoption. As a general matter, ARPA-E strongly encourages outstanding scientists and engineers from different organizations, scientific disciplines, and technology sectors to form new project teams. Interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration spanning organizational boundaries enables and accelerates the achievement of scientific and technological outcomes that were previously viewed as extremely difficult, if not impossible. The Teaming Partner List is being compiled to facilitate the formation of new project teams. The Teaming Partner List will be available on ARPA-E eXCHANGE (http://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov), ARPA-E?s online application portal, starting in April 2014. The Teaming Partner List will be updated periodically, until the close of the Full Application period, to reflect new Teaming Partners who have provided their information. Any organization that would like to be included on this list should complete all required fields in the following link: https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Applicantprofile.aspx. Required information includes: Organization Name, Contact Name, Contact Address, Contact Email, Contact Phone, Organization Type, Area of Technical Expertise, and Brief Description of Capabilities. By submitting a response to this Notice, you consent to the publication of the above-referenced information. By facilitating this Teaming Partner List, ARPA-E does not endorse or otherwise evaluate the qualifications of the entities that self-identify themselves for placement on the Teaming Partner List. ARPA-E will not pay for the provision of any information, nor will it compensate any respondents for the development of such information. Responses submitted to other email addresses or by other means will not be considered. This Notice does not constitute a FOA. No FOA exists at this time. Applicants must refer to the final FOA, expected to be issued in late April, or early May 2014, for instructions on submitting an application and for the terms and conditions of funding.

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