Performance data from the NIST net-zero energy residential test facility

Data were collected over two separate year-long test periods at the Net-Zero Energy Residential Test Facility, a laboratory designed to evaluate a variety of technologies and operational strategies that lead to energy efficient houses with comfortable and healthful indoor environments. In a net-zero energy building, all energy consumption over the course of a year is offset by on-site renewable energy production; this facility attempts to meet that goal through use of a photovoltaic array installed on the roof. Data are presented for one-year test periods over which the research team examined whether the facility would reach net-zero status. In both years, the house was operated in an all-electric configuration, with slight modifications made in the second year related to control schemes and equipment selection. A virtual family of four was simulated to carry out the operations that would typically occur in a home (e.g., appliance usage, lighting usage, hot water usage). Data are being released for the second year of operation at the time of publication of this document, with an expectation that data from the first year will be released at a later date. Data are captured as a time series where one data element is acquired every minute from each of 379 parallel data channels; these channels record a variety of quantities that are critical to evaluating the performance of the building. Among those quantities are: room temperatures, room relative humidities, electricity consumption by various devices, photovoltaic energy generation, outdoor conditions, operational status of devices, water temperatures, water flow rates, and airflow rates. Specifications are provided to fully describe the facility and its components, and an accompanying link provides design drawings and a data dictionary with key metadata for each of the channels.