Richard A. Raustad
Richard Raustad is a Research Engineer with the Florida Solar Energy Center. He holds a BS degree in electrical engineering from the University of Central Florida. Mr. Raustad also leads the technical team for UCF’s Electric Vehicle Transporation Center.
Since 1987, Mr. Raustad has worked at FSEC conducting energy related research on HVAC systems for hot and humid climates. Evaluations have included laboratory testing, long-term field monitoring and detailed computer simulations. For over a decade he had been a core software development team member for DOE’s EnergyPlus building simulation software.
Mr. Raustad is currently researching opportunities for electric vehicles in the residential and commercial building sectors. Opportunities exist for electric vehicles to provide energy storage for utility grid transmission systems or act as backup power sources for both commercial and residential applications. Electric vehicles may also be charged wirelessly and measurement of electric and magnetic fields emminating from this type of charger is being conducted in FSEC’s EV laboratory. Smart charging stations and bi-directional chargers are also being investigated in a laboratory setting to measure the impact of slow and fast chargers on a buildings electricity usage. A life cycle cost analysis has been completed and identifies savings attributed to using electricity as a motive power source. In Florida, battery electric vehicles are either less costly or very cost competitive with conventional passenger vehicles.