About Us +
Researchers in the Building Technology & Urban Systems Division (BTUS) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory develop data and technologies that increase energy efficiency and improve the health, safety and comfort of building occupants, in the United States and worldwide.

We work closely with industry partners, academics and government officials to achieve these goals, and share our research widely
Research +
We are at the forefront of cutting-edge research that redefines building technology and explores all areas of urban systems.

We have been leaders for decades in developing energy-efficient windows, improving indoor air quality, coming up with new ideas to fix the nation's electricity grid, and so much more.

Visit our research areas at the right to find out more.
Colum 1 +
Colum 2 +
Publications +
Enjoy presentations from Building Technology & Urban systems research experts on a wide variety of topics in the areas of building energy efficiency, the electricity grid and how it relates to buildings and much more.
- Presentations
News
Tools & Guides +
Explore our tools, guidebooks and software and download for free.

We offer a variety of technologies designed to simulate and model real-world circumstances to assist in energy-saving programs and help building owners build better buildings. These tools can help calculate performance of building systems like windows and shades, help consumers and builders pick the best windows for a variety of applications and much more.

Publications

Publications By Research Area

2017

Vossos, Vagelis, Stephen Pantano, Ruby Heard, and Richard E Brown."DC Appliances and DC Power Distribution: A Bridge to the Future Net Zero Energy Home."9th International Conference on Energy Efficiency in Domestic Appliances and Lighting (2017).

Wallace, Nancy, Paulo Issler, Paul A Mathew, and Kaiyu Sun."Impact of Energy Factors on Default Risk in Commercial Mortgages." (2017).

Mathew, Paul A, Kaiyu Sun, Baptiste Ravache, Paulo Issler, and Nancy Wallace."Impact of Energy Use and Price Variations on Default Risk in Commercial Mortgages: Case Studies." (2017).

Singer, Brett C, Rebecca Zarin Pass, William W Delp, David M Lorenzetti, and Randy L Maddalena."Pollutant concentrations and emission rates from natural gas cooking burners without and with range hood exhaust in nine California homes."Building and Environment 122 (2017) 215 - 229. DOI

Nordman, Bruce, Aditya Khandekar, Michael Spears, and Mattia Pezzola."A Simulation of Local Power Distribution Control Strategies."2017 IEEE Second International Conference on DC Microgrids (ICDCM) (2017). DOI

Kohler, Christian, Yash Shukla, and Rajan Rawal."Calculating the Effect of External Shading on the Solar Heat Gain Coefficient of Windows."Building Simulation 2017 (2017).

Parker, Andrew, Philip Haves, Subhash Jegi, Vishal Garg, and Baptiste Ravache."Development of Automated Procedures to Generate Reference Building Models for ASHRAE Standard 90.1 and India’s Building Energy Code and Implementation in OpenStudio."Building Simulation 2017 (2017).

Blum, David, and Michael Wetter."MPCPy: An Open-Source Software Platform for Model Predictive Control in Buildings."Proceedings of the 15th IBPSA Conference: Building Simulation 2017 (2017).

Mills, Evan."Beware kerosene subsidies: An obstacle to energy efficiency and development."European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy Columns (2017) Published on 4 July 2017.

Shah, Nihar, Nina Khanna, Nihan Karali, Won Young Park, Yi Qu, and Nan Zhou."Opportunities for Simultaneous Efficiency Improvement and Refrigerant Transition in Air Conditioning." (2017).

Gerber, Daniel L, Vagelis Vossos, Wei Feng, Aditya Khandekar, Chris Marnay, and Bruce Nordman."A simulation-based efficiency comparison of AC and DC power distribution networks in commercial buildings."Second International Conference on DC Microgrids (2017).

Mills, Evan, Norman Bourassa, Leo I Rainer, Jimmy Mai, Louis-Benoit Desroches, Arman Shehabi, Ted Pollak, and Nathaniel Mills."An Energy-focused Profile of the Video Gaming Marketplace." (2017).

Aghajanzadeh, Arian, Aimee T McKane, Paul Sheaffer, Peter L Therkelsen, and Prakash Rao."AUTOMATED REGISTER V1.0.3: User Manual for Using the Automated Register of Implemented Actions." (2017).

Cui, Ying, Da Yan, Tianzhen Hong, Chan Xiao, Xuan Luo, and Qi Zhang."Comparison of typical year and multiyear building simulations using a 55-year actual weather data set from China."Applied Energy 195 (2017) 890-904. DOI

Liu, Jingjing, Prakash Rao, Peter L Therkelsen, Paul Sheaffer, Paul Scheihing, and Yannick Tamm."ISO 50001 and SEP Faster and Cheaper - Exploring the Enterprise-Wide Approach." (2017).

Pritoni, Marco, Kiernan Salmon, Angela Sanguinetti, Joshua Morejohn, and Mark Modera."Occupant thermal feedback for improved efficiency in university buildings."Energy and Buildings 144 (2017) 241 - 250. DOI

Meier, Alan K, and Hans-Paul Siderius."Should the next standby power target be 0-watt?." (2017).

Ohshita, Stephanie, Jingjing Zhang, Li Yang, Min Hu, Nina Khanna, David Fridley, Shuang Liu, Ang Li, Miao Sun, and Nan Zhou."China Green Low-Carbon City Index." (2017).

Khanna, Nina, David Fridley, Nan Zhou, Nihan Karali, Jingjing Zhang, and Wei Feng."China’s Trajectories beyond Efficiency: CO2 Implications of Maximizing Electrification and Renewable Resources through 2050."ECEEE Summer Study 2017. Presqu'ile Giens, Hyeres France, 2017 (2017).

Gilbert, Haley E, Pablo J Rosado, George A Ban-Weiss, John T Harvey, Hui Li, Benjamin H Mandel, Dev Millstein, Arash Mohegh, Arash Saboori, and Ronnen M Levinson."Energy and environmental consequences of a cool pavement campaign." (2017).

Hart, Robert, Howdy Goudey, and D. D Charlie Curcija."Experimental validation and model development for thermal transmittances of porous window screens and horizontal louvred blind systems."Journal of Building Performance Simulation 11.2 (2017) 190 - 204. DOI

Feng, Wei, Xiwang Li, Carolyn Szum, Nan Zhou, Michael Bendewald, Zihe Meng, and Yani Zeng."From Prescriptive to Outcome-Based — The Evolution of Building Energy Codes and Standards in China."ECEEE Summer Study 2017 (2017).

Liu, Jingjing, and Aimee T McKane."Guide for Determining Energy Savings from Changes in Operations, Behavior, and Maintenance Procedures." (2017).

Zhou, Nan, and Nina Khanna."Lessons Learned from International Energy Labelling Programs for Strengthening the China Energy Label Program."ECEEE Summer Study 2017 (2017).