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HVAC/ HYDRONICS 36 NOVEMBER 2014 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com T he 2 nd OESP Roadshow, held in Gettysburg, Pa., at the Wyndham Hotel on Sept. 21-23 featured a range of educational session. One highlight was Energy Trends, an open and informal discussion with Dr. Tom Butcher, Brookhaven National Laboratory, who will be leading the National Oilheat Research Alliance's research efforts. He covered a range of trends and future developments in household energy use, and opportunities for heating oil and pro- pane dealers. There was a specific focus on heating appliances, fuels and the "smart grid." Butcher began the discussion with heating appliances, stat- ing that building loads are going down. He emphasized all of the efficiency being put into place today, but noted that a home built today will exist far into the future and that today's energy milestones might not be that impressive as time advances. "You hear about zero-energy homes, and really tight homes, and this movement toward tiny homes, and you hear that domestic hot water is becoming the dominant load in terms of peak BTUs per hour, and space heating loads are getting lower—and certainly I think all of that is true," Butcher said. "But a home that is built today could last 100 years, and if you look at the average con- struction quality of homes today, they are not much better, re- ally, compared to those in the past. So loads aren't really going to change all that much in spite of better construction." Butcher noted that you can consider such leading-edge tech- nologies as condensing appliances, 96% efficient appliances and outdoor reset or equivalent controls as being fairly standard and commonplace moving further into the future. How exciting are they, really? "Appliances are getting really, really good, and there are a lot of great options out there with the advances in controls and how to make condensing appliances work, but if I go down and talk to the Department of Energy about appliances their response is kind of a yawn," said Butcher, who noted that 100% efficiency is no longer good enough for the future. "So the question is, how do we get beyond 100% efficiency?" And, odd as it may seem, you can get beyond 100% efficien- cy using less-traditional approaches that provide additional energy offsets. One such solution outlined by Butcher is micro combined heat and power, or micro-CHP, which are basically home heat- ing systems that also generate electricity. These include small engine driven systems, and in Europe the Sterling engine ap- proach has gained a lot of attention. As Wikipedia explains, a sterling engine is an engine that operates by the cyclic compres- sion and expansion of air or other gas (the working fluid) at different temperatures, such that there is a net conversion of heat energy to mechanical work. You have reciprocating steam and steam turbines, and gas micro-turbines. There are approaches involving Organic Rank- ine, or ORC, which is basically a refrigeration cycle pushed backward where the scroll compressor becomes a generator. And in Japan, fuel cell systems are being explored that generate high temperatures. Future Energy Trends Dr. Tom Butcher sets out a roadmap for residential and commercial heating and energy Dr. Tom Butcher