The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Building Technologies Office (BTO) JUMP program experienced a successful year of engagement and innovation in 2016, adding 12 industry partners, launching 13 calls for innovations, and advancing 10 winning ideas. The JUMP user community also grew, with more than 1,300 registered users discussing and voting on 170 technically valid ideas.

JUMP – Join in the discussion, Unveil innovation, Motivate transformation and Promote technology-to-market – is an online crowdsourcing community that provides innovators with a path to accelerate the transition of energy-efficiency ideas from concept through commercialization. JUMP broadens the pool of people from whom DOE seeks innovative ideas and moves these ideas to the marketplace faster.

“JUMP is an incubating community of innovation for building energy efficiency technologies. The strong partnerships in large and small industry, academia, and the public sector, fostered through this program, make these projects uniquely poised to succeed through the stages of development and adoption into the market,” said Karma Sawyer, program manager of the Emerging Technologies program at BTO.

This interactive community reaches across the buildings sector, engaging students, small businesses, innovators, and end user participants. JUMP seeks to reduce the time and money needed to get great ideas out of research and development (R&D) and into the market by partnering with national labs and industry, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Siemens, and A.O. Smith.

JUMP’s effort to build a community for innovators has been greatly appreciated by participants. Challenge winner Benjamin Knobb said, “The problem is that very few inventors are successful and it is difficult to know where to begin. As an individual, JUMP is the platform I was looking for to express my creativity and innovate with collaborators.” 

Each 2016 winning idea went through a robust evaluation process, including an online peer review and evaluation by judges specific to their technology area. Ideas were reviewed based on technical feasibility, potential energy savings, market readiness, economic potential, and novelty. The following are some of the winning ideas that are being further developed for future market consideration:

• Siemens Bring Your Own Controller for the Internet of Things: Challenge winner Payam Yeganeh is an entrepreneur and digital strategist based in Los Angeles and will receive a $5,000 cash award for his technology submission, “BuildingBot.” This concept leverages established chat applications like Facebook, WhatsAPP, Telegram, or SMS text messages to enable building occupants to interact with the facility and systems for safety, comfort, and way-finding.
• A.O. Smith Water Heater Challenge: Benjamin Knobb was awarded the challenge prize for his thermally isolating preheater. Benjamin is collaborating with A.O. Smith and ORNL on further developing his prototype and received a $5,000 cash award from A.O. Smith in addition to an in-kind contribution of up to $20,000 from ORNL to enable successful prototype development.
• Federal Energy Management Program Federal Building Technology Challenge: Winner Scot Duncan received up to $50,000 of in-kind technical support from ORNL for validation, evaluation and analysis of High-Efficiency Dehumidification Systems (HEDs) for its technical and energy savings potential in federal buildings to save energy in dehumidification and humidity control processes. Results from the validation study will be announced at the 2017 Energy Exchange.

Over the next year, JUMP is planning a series of strategically targeted calls for innovation focusing on non-invasive envelope and air-sealing technologies, early fault detection for roof top units, and risk assessment of alternative refrigerants, among other topics.

To find out more about how you can be involved, join JUMP’s webinar on December 7 from 3-4 p.m. (EST).

Stay informed on new calls, winners, and regional events (such as the JUMP team at ASHRAE’s upcoming winter conference) by signing up for JUMP’s newsletter at JUMP.ideascale.com.