Lab Homes

To conduct experiments focused on quantifying energy-saving and load-shifting potential, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), along with multiple sponsors, established the PNNL Lab Homes facility at the PNNL-Richland campus in Washington in 2011.

While there are other lab homes around the country, the PNNL Lab Homes are unique due to their location in a cold climate zone and their representation of typical existing homes in the United States, providing insight into how new technologies will perform in a real home environment.

Project Testbeds

As first-of-their-kind structures in a cold climate region in the United States, the PNNL Lab Homes include a baseline home and an experimental home. These homes are identical in nearly every respect, except for the inclusion of the experimental equipment being tested. They are typical of existing homes in the United States and consist of a common 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom layout, with a kitchen and laundry appliances. The homes have both gas and electric services, enabling the study of all types of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, water heating technologies, and appliances.

In each experiment, the baseline home serves as a control, featuring a suite of typical equipment found in existing homes, while the experimental home features all the same equipment as the baseline home, except for the inclusion of the experimental equipment. During the experimental period, both homes are operated identically (e.g., the same automated lighting, water draw, and appliance usage), allowing differences in energy use and any other whole-building interactions to provide a clear picture of the how the performance of the new technology compares to the performance of the older technologies. Data monitoring in the homes includes the collection of data related to energy use, water use, environmental conditions (e.g., humidity), and indoor environmental quality.

View the Lab Homes Experiments page to learn about recent experiments.

Achieving Insight

Researchers, manufacturers, utilities, partners in academia, and other members of industry have access to this unique project testbed, which offers the following benefits:

Quantified energy savings, load-shifting potential, and environmental impacts of new residential technologies.
A better understanding of the house as a system, particularly with respect to how new technologies interact with existing systems.
Technical reference data that can be used to justify new measures for utilities and technical resource manuals.
Collaboration with manufacturers to help optimize performance and the associated cost of technologies.

View and print the PNNL Lab Homes flyer to learn more.