Publications – Kevin J. Kircher

2026

L.D. Reyes Premer, E.N. Pergantis, L. Semmelmann, D. Ziviani and K.J. Kircher. Model predictive control lowers barriers to adoption of heat-pump water heaters: A field study. Energy Conversion and Management (2026).

2025

E.N. Pergantis, L.D. Reyes Premer, A.J. Khabbazi, Priyadarshan, F. Wu, D. Ziviani and K.J. Kircher. Active current limiting control of residential appliances for breaker panel protection across the US: a preliminary study. CISBAT (2025).
Priyadarshan, C. Crozier, K. Baker and K.J. Kircher. Distribution grids may be a barrier to residential electrification. Cell Reports Sustainability (2025).
- Supplemental information
- Code
L.D. Reyes Premer, L. Semmelmann, E.A. Groll, D. Ziviani and K.J. Kircher. A minimal-sensing predictive control strategy for heat pump water heaters: Field insights from cold climate operation. ASHRAE Annual Conference (2025).
A.J. Khabbazi, E.N. Pergantis, L.D. Reyes Premer, P. Papageorgiou, A.H. Lee, J.E. Braun, G.P. Henze and K.J. Kircher. Lessons learned from field demonstrations of model predictive control and reinforcement learning for residential and commercial HVAC: A review. Applied Energy (2025).
- Dataset
K.J. Kircher. Accounting for methane from natural gas infrastructure in United States emissions estimates. Energy Policy (2025).
- Code
- Preprint
O.B. Mulayim, G. Qu, K.J. Kircher and M.E. Berges. Physics-informed RL for HVAC controls: Imitation to online fine-tuning. International Conference on Machine Learning (2025).
L. Semmelmann, K. Kaiser, A. Heider, K.J. Kircher, G. Hug and C. Weinhardt. Analyzing the impact of dynamic tariff adoption and regulatory options on distribution grids with an open-source framework. E-Energy: ACM International Conference on Future and Sustainable Energy Systems (2025).
A.H.P. Farha, P. Papageorgiou, K.J. Kircher, E.A. Groll and R. Ciez. A technoeconomic decision making framework for thermal energy storage in net-zero energy systems across the United States. ASHRAE Annual Conference (2025).
F. Wu, H. Lee, P. Karava, H. Devarapalli, J.E. Braun, K.J. Kircher, D. Ziviani and W. Travis Horton. Occupant thermostat-adjustment behavioral patterns for different heat pump types and operation modes. Building and Environment (2025).
E.N. Pergantis, C. Liang, A.A.M. Bani Issa, J. Cai, D. Ziviani and K.J. Kircher. Frost accumulation reduction in air-source heat pumps using load regulation. CLIMA (2025).
E.N. Pergantis, L.D. Reyes Premer, A.H. Lee, Priyadarshan, H. Liu, D. Ziviani, E.A. Groll and K.J. Kircher. Protecting residential electrical panels and service through model predictive control: A field study. Applied Energy (2025).
N. Al Theeb, A.A.M Bani Issa and K.J. Kircher. Using small amounts of resistance heat to improve thermal comfort in residential air-source heat pumps. ASHRAE Winter Conference (2025).

2024

G.P. Henze, K.J. Kircher and J.E. Braun. Why has advanced commercial HVAC control not yet achieved its promise? Journal of Building Performance Simulation (2024).
E.N. Pergantis, P. Dhillon, L.D. Reyes Premer, A.H. Lee, D. Ziviani and K.J. Kircher. Humidity-aware model predictive control for residential air conditioning: A field study. Building and Environment (2024).
E.N. Pergantis, L.D. Reyes Premer, A.H. Lee, H. Liu, D. Ziviani, E.A. Groll and K.J. Kircher. Protecting residential electrical infrastructure through advanced control: The first field results. International High Performance Buildings Conference (2024).
- Video
A.J. Khabbazi, E.N. Pergantis, L.D. Reyes Premer, A.H. Lee, J. Ma, G.P. Henze and K.J. Kircher. What have we learned from field demonstrations of advanced commercial HVAC control? International High Performance Buildings Conference (2024).
- Video
L.D. Reyes Premer, L. Semmelmann, E.N. Pergantis, D. Ziviani, E.A. Groll and K.J. Kircher. A predictive heat pump water heater controller in a residential building: A field study. International High Performance Buildings Conference (2024).
F. Wu, H. Devarapalli, H. Lee, J. Go, H. Kim, P. Karava, J.E. Braun, D. Ziviani, W.T. Horton, K.J. Kircher and E.A. Groll. Investigating occupant thermostat adjustment behavioral patterns in different heat pump operation modes: A field experiment. International High Performance Buildings Conference (2024).
D. Mah, H. Cai, K.J. Kircher and A. Tzempelikos. Real-time estimation of heat gains for demand-driven building control using deep learning. International High Performance Buildings Conference (2024).
A. Farha, D. Ziviani, K.J. Kircher and E.A. Groll. Performance comparison of a residential split-system heat pump powered on AC versus DC power. International High Performance Buildings Conference (2024).
E.N. Pergantis, J. Park, Priyadarshan, T.J. Bird, D. Ziviani and K.J. Kircher. Learning the thermal dynamics of a residential building from limited data. International High Performance Buildings Conference (2024).
L. Sriram, A. Farha, A. Hoess, D. Ziviani, E.A. Groll, E.N. Pergantis and K.J. Kircher. Development and comparative analysis of a power-over-ethernet (PoE) DC lighting system for residential buildings. International High Performance Buildings Conference (2024).
L. Semmelmann, M. Hertel, K.J. Kircher, R. Mikut, V. Hagenmeyer and Christof Weinhardt. The impact of heat pumps on day-ahead energy community load forecasting. Applied Energy (2024).
E.N. Pergantis, Priyadarshan, N. Al Theeb, P. Dillhon, J.P. Ore, D. Ziviani, E.A. Groll and K.J. Kircher. Field demonstration of predictive heating control for an all-electric house in a cold climate. Applied Energy (2024).
D. Mah, A. Tzempelikos and K.J. Kircher. Real-time detection of internal and solar gains toward demand-driven building control using deep learning. ASHRAE Winter Conference (2024).
E.N. Pergantis, L.D. Reyes Premer, Priyadarshan, A.H. Lee, P. Dillhon, D. Ziviani, E.A. Groll and K.J. Kircher. Latent and sensible model predictive controller demonstration in a house during cooling operation. ASHRAE Winter Conference (2024).
Priyadarshan, E.N. Pergantis, C. Crozier, K. Baker and K.J. Kircher. EDGIE: A simulation test-bed for evaluating the impacts of building and vehicle electrification on distribution grids. Hawai’i International Conference on System Sciences (2024).

2023

E.N. Pergantis, A.S. Sangamnerkar, Priyadarshan, J.P. Ore, P. Dillhon, D. Ziviani, E.A. Groll and K.J. Kircher. Sensors, storage and algorithms for practical optimal controls in residential buildings. ASHRAE Annual Conference (2023).
A.O. Aderibole, K.J. Kircher, E.K. Saathoff, S.B. Leeb and L.K. Norford. Adaptive power line communication for low-data-rate control and sensing. IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery (2023).

2022

A.O. Aderibole, E.K. Saathoff, K.J. Kircher, A.W. Langham, L.K. Norford and S.B. Leeb. Characterizing low-data-rate power line communication channels. IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement (2022).
A.O. Aderibole, K.J. Kircher, L.K. Norford and S.B. Leeb. Distributed load control using reliable low-bandwidth power line communication. IEEE Access (2022).
Z. Zhang, K.J. Kircher, Y. Cai, J.G. Brearly, D. Birge and L.K. Norford. Mitigating peak load and heat stress under heat waves by optimizing thermostat setpoint and fan speed schedules. Journal of Building Performance Simulation (2022).
K.J. Kircher, A.O. Aderibole, L.K. Norford and S.B. Leeb. Distributed peak shaving for small aggregations of cyclic loads. IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery (2022).

2021

A.O. Aderibole, E.K. Saathoff, K.J. Kircher, S.B. Leeb and L.K. Norford. Power line communication for low-bandwidth control and sensing. IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery (2021).
K.J. Kircher, Y. Cai, L.K. Norford and S.B. Leeb. Controlling big, diverse, nonlinear load aggregations for grid services by adjusting device setpoints. IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (2021).
- Slides
- Video
Y. Cai, J. Burek, S. Das, J.R. Gregory, L.K. Norford, J. Wang and K.J. Kircher. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by optimizing room temperature set-points. International Conference on Machine Learning (2021): Workshop on Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning.
K.J. Kircher and K.M. Zhang. Heat purchase agreements could lower barriers to heat pump adoption. Applied Energy 286 (2021).

2020

K.J. Kircher, W. Schaefer and K.M. Zhang. A computationally efficient, high-fidelity testbed for building climate control. ASME Journal of Engineering for Sustainable Buildings and Cities 2 (2020): 1–22.

2019

K.J. Kircher. Heat pump aggregation, optimization and control. PhD thesis, Cornell University (2019).
Z. Lee, K. Gupta, K.J. Kircher and K.M. Zhang. Mixed-integer model predictive control of variable-speed heat pumps. Energy and Buildings 198 (2019): 75–83.
K.J. Kircher and K.M. Zhang. Convexity and monotonicity in nonlinear optimal control under uncertainty. arXiv pre-print 1904.00987 (2019).

Pre-2019

K.J. Kircher and K.M. Zhang. Sample-average model predictive control of uncertain linear systems. IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (2016).
- Slides
K.J. Kircher and K.M. Zhang. Testing building controls with the BLDG toolbox. American Control Conference (2016). Invited paper.
- Code
K.J. Kircher and K.M. Zhang. On the lumped capacitance approximation accuracy in RC network building models. Energy and Buildings 104 (2015): 454–462.
- Code
S.N. Palacio, K.J. Kircher and K.M. Zhang. On the feasibility of providing power system spinning reserves from thermal storage. Energy and Buildings 104 (2015): 131–138.
K.J. Kircher and K.M. Zhang. Model predictive control of thermal storage for demand response. American Control Conference (2015). Invited paper.
- Slides
- Code
K.J. Kircher, G. Ghatikar, S. Greenberg, D. Watson, R. Diamond, D. Sartor, C. Federspeil, A. McEachern and T. Owen. Toward the holy grail of perfect information: Lessons learned from implementing an energy information system in a commercial building. ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings (2010).
P.A. Mathew, R. Clear, K.J. Kircher, T. Webster, K.H. Lee and T. Hoyt. Advanced benchmarking for complex building types: Laboratories as an exemplar. ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings (2010).
K.J. Kircher, X. Shi, S. Patil and K.M. Zhang. Cleanroom energy efficiency strategies: Modeling and simulation. Energy and Buildings 42 (2010): 282–289.