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• 11. [Article] Forecasting Super-Efficient Dryers Adoption in the Pacific Northwest

  Energy efficiency is now estimated to be the third source of electricity in the USA (in the form of virtual power capacity equal to the savings resulted from efficiency). The Pacific NorthWest is among ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Forecasting Super-Efficient Dryers Adoption in the Pacific Northwest Author: Gupta, Apeksha, Barham, Husam, Lavoie, Joao, Lilja, Tania, Nguyen, Tin Year: 2016 Energy efficiency is now estimated to be the third source of electricity in the USA (in the form of virtual power capacity equal to the savings resulted from efficiency). The Pacific NorthWest is among the leading regions in the US when it comes to energy efficiency [1, 2], in fact, it is estimated that energy efficiency will meet all the new demands in the Pacific NorthWest region through 2035. The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), is an alliance of more than 140 Northwest utilities and energy efficiency organizations, dedicated to accelerating both electric and gas energy efficiency, leveraging its regional partnerships to advance the adoption of energy-efficient products, services and practices. One product NEEA has been evaluating recently is super-efficient dryers, a product that promises energy efficiency as much as 40% of the current energy being consumed by a typical dryer in the region [4]. Before NEEA can promote and support this product, they need to understand its market potentials, so two separated studies were conducted to forecast this product future, however; the studies indicated different results. In this project, the objectives are to forecast the adoption and market share of super-efficient dryers (SED’s) and to provide additional information that could help organizations like NEEA to promote and disseminate SED’s, creating market transformations towards the adoption of energy efficient products. More specifically, our goal is to help NEEA by providing them with yet another counter-factual model of the super efficient dryers adoption (focusing on a specific market segment), and also to enable NEEA to use this model as a tool to convince manufacturers to increase their marketing efforts towards a larger adoption. The next section brings a literature review on technology forecasting, energy efficiency and other important topics for this study, followed by methodology, analysis and results, conclusions, limitations and future research. Title: Forecasting Super-Efficient Dryers Adoption in the Pacific Northwest Author: Gupta, Apeksha, Barham, Husam, Lavoie, Joao, Lilja, Tania, Nguyen, Tin Year: 2016 Energy efficiency is now estimated to be the third source of electricity in the USA (in the form of virtual power capacity equal to the savings resulted from efficiency). The Pacific NorthWest is among the leading regions in the US when it comes to energy efficiency [1, 2], in fact, it is estimated that energy efficiency will meet all the new demands in the Pacific NorthWest region through 2035. The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), is an alliance of more than 140 Northwest utilities and energy efficiency organizations, dedicated to accelerating both electric and gas energy efficiency, leveraging its regional partnerships to advance the adoption of energy-efficient products, services and practices. One product NEEA has been evaluating recently is super-efficient dryers, a product that promises energy efficiency as much as 40% of the current energy being consumed by a typical dryer in the region [4]. Before NEEA can promote and support this product, they need to understand its market potentials, so two separated studies were conducted to forecast this product future, however; the studies indicated different results. In this project, the objectives are to forecast the adoption and market share of super-efficient dryers (SED’s) and to provide additional information that could help organizations like NEEA to promote and disseminate SED’s, creating market transformations towards the adoption of energy efficient products. More specifically, our goal is to help NEEA by providing them with yet another counter-factual model of the super efficient dryers adoption (focusing on a specific market segment), and also to enable NEEA to use this model as a tool to convince manufacturers to increase their marketing efforts towards a larger adoption. The next section brings a literature review on technology forecasting, energy efficiency and other important topics for this study, followed by methodology, analysis and results, conclusions, limitations and future research. Close

• 12. [Article] What Country Makes the Best Place for Work? By using Hierarchical Decision Model (HDM)

  Work is very basic practice in human civilization. Starting with billions of years ago, a human was busy with farming, lumberjack, hunting, and sailor. Indeed, the role of labor and the development of ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: What Country Makes the Best Place for Work? By using Hierarchical Decision Model (HDM) Author: AL Saglab, Bashair Year: 2017 Work is very basic practice in human civilization. Starting with billions of years ago, a human was busy with farming, lumberjack, hunting, and sailor. Indeed, the role of labor and the development of different kinds of jobs have been prime to our growth and wealthiest; as a result, human will seek to the most convenient place in the earth that will provide a good place for work. From this concept, finding the best country for work is important in these days. Because human cannot live without work, finding the most desirable country to work is essential. Based on the evaluation of the most priority needs from a set of criteria, a good decision for selecting the criteria that are influencing the decision can be taken. In fact, a good evaluation tool will help human to select the adequate country for work. This paper is about decision-making model for selection a country for work that a family or an indivisible will choose to ensure a better quality of life, happiness, and comfort. This paper develops a framework to determine the most outstanding country for work from different countries around the global. The decision model used in this research paper is a comprehensive evaluation tool for a personal decision analysis that answers this question "What country makes the best place for work?" Indeed, a hierarchical decision model (HDM) was constructed for the framework. Experts judgments were used in this research paper to provide a pair-wised comparison evaluation for choosing one of the country outcomes that are: KSA, USA, UAE, and UK. The hierarchy model includes three levels: criteria, sub-criteria, and alternatives. The results of this analysis show that working in The United Kingdom is the best place to work because of the weighted score for political stability, tolerance for other customs, and Language barriers. This model would be helpful for an individual case who is qualified to start looking for a good work opportunity in either KSA, USA, UAE, and UK and have these characteristics of a limited budget, special traditions, and socially interactive. Though this paper highlighted several issues in selecting the best place for work, this would make a good topic for future research. Indeed, addressing the size of the company and the size of the family who lives in the household. And the education level for the work seeker, also the working experience period. Title: What Country Makes the Best Place for Work? By using Hierarchical Decision Model (HDM) Author: AL Saglab, Bashair Year: 2017 Work is very basic practice in human civilization. Starting with billions of years ago, a human was busy with farming, lumberjack, hunting, and sailor. Indeed, the role of labor and the development of different kinds of jobs have been prime to our growth and wealthiest; as a result, human will seek to the most convenient place in the earth that will provide a good place for work. From this concept, finding the best country for work is important in these days. Because human cannot live without work, finding the most desirable country to work is essential. Based on the evaluation of the most priority needs from a set of criteria, a good decision for selecting the criteria that are influencing the decision can be taken. In fact, a good evaluation tool will help human to select the adequate country for work. This paper is about decision-making model for selection a country for work that a family or an indivisible will choose to ensure a better quality of life, happiness, and comfort. This paper develops a framework to determine the most outstanding country for work from different countries around the global. The decision model used in this research paper is a comprehensive evaluation tool for a personal decision analysis that answers this question "What country makes the best place for work?" Indeed, a hierarchical decision model (HDM) was constructed for the framework. Experts judgments were used in this research paper to provide a pair-wised comparison evaluation for choosing one of the country outcomes that are: KSA, USA, UAE, and UK. The hierarchy model includes three levels: criteria, sub-criteria, and alternatives. The results of this analysis show that working in The United Kingdom is the best place to work because of the weighted score for political stability, tolerance for other customs, and Language barriers. This model would be helpful for an individual case who is qualified to start looking for a good work opportunity in either KSA, USA, UAE, and UK and have these characteristics of a limited budget, special traditions, and socially interactive. Though this paper highlighted several issues in selecting the best place for work, this would make a good topic for future research. Indeed, addressing the size of the company and the size of the family who lives in the household. And the education level for the work seeker, also the working experience period. Close

• 13. [Article] Evaluation of Smart Home Hubs

  A smart home hub is a hardware device that connects the devices on a home automation network and controls communications among them. The devices on a home automation or smart home network might include ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Evaluation of Smart Home Hubs Author: Alzahrani, Ahmed, Alshamlani, Majed, Hsu, Wei-Chen, Harish, Shreyas Year: 2017 A smart home hub is a hardware device that connects the devices on a home automation network and controls communications among them. The devices on a home automation or smart home network might include thermostats, light bulbs, wall outlets and switches, door locks, energy monitors, window coverings, appliances, motion sensors, etc. With a smart hub, all of these smart devices can be controlled using a single app. In spite of being very useful devices, smart hubs have their limitations. Certain smart hubs are only compatible with certain smart devices, whereas others support a limited number of languages. Some operate well only over a short distance (about 15 feet). Some hubs support more smart devices than others, while certain hubs can connect to more devices simultaneously than others. These limitations present a question to consumers as to which smart hub will best suit their needs. This project proposes a hierarchical decision model (HDM) to help consumers decide which smart hub alternative is best for them, based on their needs. The HDM is coupled with a pairwise comparison method in order to evaluate all possible alternatives. The model incorporates various criteria for smart hubs such as range of operation, communication protocols supported, number of devices supported, etc for various smart hubs available in today's market, thus providing the consumer with the right information and feedback needed to purchase the smart hub that suits him/her best. Four alternatives for smart hubs were used in this model, namely Samsung SmartThings, VeraSecure, Wink2 and Securifi Almond 3. Rankings were assigned to these alternatives based on experts’ opinions used in the HDM. Results concluded that the SamsungSmartThings is the best alternative for the model used, followed by Wink2 and Securifi Almond 3. This indicated that initial cost, number of protocols supported by the hub and ease of use were the most important criteria considered to achieve the desired objective of selecting the appropriate smart hub. Title: Evaluation of Smart Home Hubs Author: Alzahrani, Ahmed, Alshamlani, Majed, Hsu, Wei-Chen, Harish, Shreyas Year: 2017 A smart home hub is a hardware device that connects the devices on a home automation network and controls communications among them. The devices on a home automation or smart home network might include thermostats, light bulbs, wall outlets and switches, door locks, energy monitors, window coverings, appliances, motion sensors, etc. With a smart hub, all of these smart devices can be controlled using a single app. In spite of being very useful devices, smart hubs have their limitations. Certain smart hubs are only compatible with certain smart devices, whereas others support a limited number of languages. Some operate well only over a short distance (about 15 feet). Some hubs support more smart devices than others, while certain hubs can connect to more devices simultaneously than others. These limitations present a question to consumers as to which smart hub will best suit their needs. This project proposes a hierarchical decision model (HDM) to help consumers decide which smart hub alternative is best for them, based on their needs. The HDM is coupled with a pairwise comparison method in order to evaluate all possible alternatives. The model incorporates various criteria for smart hubs such as range of operation, communication protocols supported, number of devices supported, etc for various smart hubs available in today's market, thus providing the consumer with the right information and feedback needed to purchase the smart hub that suits him/her best. Four alternatives for smart hubs were used in this model, namely Samsung SmartThings, VeraSecure, Wink2 and Securifi Almond 3. Rankings were assigned to these alternatives based on experts’ opinions used in the HDM. Results concluded that the SamsungSmartThings is the best alternative for the model used, followed by Wink2 and Securifi Almond 3. This indicated that initial cost, number of protocols supported by the hub and ease of use were the most important criteria considered to achieve the desired objective of selecting the appropriate smart hub. Close

• 14. [Article] Heat Pump Water Heater (HPWH) Adoption

  As time goes by, the idea of having unlimited energy resources becomes less and less feasible. The population of our world and the rate of consumption of resources increase each year. The future has us ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Heat Pump Water Heater (HPWH) Adoption Author: Amini, Mitra, Singla, Puniti, Lui, Jonathan, Kensel, Craig, Lethlean, Joseph Year: 2012 As time goes by, the idea of having unlimited energy resources becomes less and less feasible. The population of our world and the rate of consumption of resources increase each year. The future has us looking at alternative energy sources that will drive the need for better methods of extraction of natural energy’s like wind, water, solar, geothermal heat, and other various types of natural resources. There is a need to focus on developing more energy efficiency of current products to lessen the demand on current energy sources. Primarily powered by electricity, one of the areas to focus on energy efficiency is the heat pump water heater (HPWH). In the Northwest states (Washington, Montana, Oregon, Idaho) about sixty to sixty five percent of households use electricity as the primary source of power. Heating water can consume anywhere from fifteen to twenty five percent of the home total energy consumption. The engineering behind the HPWH doesn’t generate its own heat while running. Rather the HPWH uses the ambient air surrounding the water heater and functions in revers of a refrigeration or air conditioning system. According to Energy star: “HPWH takes the heat from surrounding air and transfers it to water in an enclosed tank. A low-pressure liquid refrigerant is vaporized in the heat pump's evaporator and passed into the compressor. As the pressure of the refrigerant increases, so does its temperature. The heated refrigerant runs through a condenser coil within the storage tank, transferring heat to the water stored there. As the refrigerant delivers its heat to the water, it cools and condenses, and then passes through an expansion valve where the pressure is reduced and the cycle starts over.” Research Question: Why has the HPWH had such a slow or low adoption rate in society? Research Objective: There are factors and sub factors that are affecting the adoption of the Heat Pump Water Heater. The factors we have identified are economic, politic, social, technical and environmental. The sub-factors (elements) will be constructed at a later time and into the HDM model to find the causes that affect the adoption of heat pump water heater. Title: Heat Pump Water Heater (HPWH) Adoption Author: Amini, Mitra, Singla, Puniti, Lui, Jonathan, Kensel, Craig, Lethlean, Joseph Year: 2012 As time goes by, the idea of having unlimited energy resources becomes less and less feasible. The population of our world and the rate of consumption of resources increase each year. The future has us looking at alternative energy sources that will drive the need for better methods of extraction of natural energy’s like wind, water, solar, geothermal heat, and other various types of natural resources. There is a need to focus on developing more energy efficiency of current products to lessen the demand on current energy sources. Primarily powered by electricity, one of the areas to focus on energy efficiency is the heat pump water heater (HPWH). In the Northwest states (Washington, Montana, Oregon, Idaho) about sixty to sixty five percent of households use electricity as the primary source of power. Heating water can consume anywhere from fifteen to twenty five percent of the home total energy consumption. The engineering behind the HPWH doesn’t generate its own heat while running. Rather the HPWH uses the ambient air surrounding the water heater and functions in revers of a refrigeration or air conditioning system. According to Energy star: “HPWH takes the heat from surrounding air and transfers it to water in an enclosed tank. A low-pressure liquid refrigerant is vaporized in the heat pump's evaporator and passed into the compressor. As the pressure of the refrigerant increases, so does its temperature. The heated refrigerant runs through a condenser coil within the storage tank, transferring heat to the water stored there. As the refrigerant delivers its heat to the water, it cools and condenses, and then passes through an expansion valve where the pressure is reduced and the cycle starts over.” Research Question: Why has the HPWH had such a slow or low adoption rate in society? Research Objective: There are factors and sub factors that are affecting the adoption of the Heat Pump Water Heater. The factors we have identified are economic, politic, social, technical and environmental. The sub-factors (elements) will be constructed at a later time and into the HDM model to find the causes that affect the adoption of heat pump water heater. Close