Overview

The Building Technology and Urban Systems Division at Berkeley Lab has an extensive array of testing capabilities for material characterization and performance monitoring of a wide range of building technologies.

Whole Building

• Berkeley Lab offers FLEXLAB^®, a set of testbeds and simulation platforms for research, development, and demonstration of low energy building technologies, control systems, and building systems integration.

  Please visit: flexlab.lbl.gov

Lighting

Our Lighting Systems Test Facilities aid research that improves the energy efficiency of lighting systems. For more information: facades.lbl.gov/lighting-systems-laboratory

• The Gonio-Photometer measures illuminance from each portion of a lamp or fixture. Find out more at: windows.lbl.gov/large-goniometer

• Spectro Radiometer: Measures the light output of a light source at each wavelength.

Windows & Envelope Materials

• Advanced Windows Test Facility: Tests new window technologies for energy savings and occupant comfort. This multi-room laboratory simulates real-world office spaces and measures the performance of commercially-available and prototype window systems such as electrochromic windows and automatically controlled shutters and blinds.

  Please visit: facades.lbl.gov/advanced-windows-testbed

Solar-optical Properties Laboratory

The Solar-optical properties Laboratory has a complete set of instruments designed to characterize the detailed radiometric and optical properties of window glazing and shading materials. Find out more at: windows.lbl.gov/solar-optical-properties-laboratory

• Photo-Goniometer: Measures light transmission and reflection of light-emitting, light-scattering, and light-redirecting materials. For more information: windows.lbl.gov/large-goniometer
• Spectro Goniometer: Measures angle-resolved scattering versus wavelength. Find out more at: windows.lbl.gov/spectro-goniometer

Material Characterization

• Dektak 150 Surface Profiler: Measures the thickness and deposition rates of thin films grown in our coating lab.
• Pelletron: An electrostatic ion accelerator made for ion beam analysis of materials.

Thermography and Heat Transfer

• Thermal testing facilities at Berkeley Lab serve to assure credibility of models and software tools and to determine thermal performance of new products and technologies. Fore more information: windows.lbl.gov/thermal-properties-laboratory
• Infrared Thermography Laboratory: A platform for conducting detailed experiments on the thermal performance of windows and other insulated systems. For more information: facades.lbl.gov/infrared-thermography-laboratory
• Mobile Window Thermal Test Facility (MoWITT): Contains two side-by-side calorimetric test chambers for testing the thermal performance of window and wall elements under actual outdoor conditions. Find out more at: facades.lbl.gov/mowitt-mobile-window-thermal-test-facility

• Coating Lab: Contains chambers for growing thin film window coatings.
• Plasma Applications Coating Lab: Contains chambers for growing thin film window coatings. For more information: facades.lbl.gov/plasma-assisted-deposition-laboratory
• Solar Control Thin Films Laboratory: Develops novel thin film coatings, deposition technologies, and device systems for next-generation, energy-efficient windows.

Additional Berkeley Lab Facilities

In addition to the above Division-specific facilities, Berkeley Lab is home to a number of world-class facilities, including:

• Advanced Light Source (ALS): A particle accelerator that generates bright beams of x-rays for scientific research in biology, chemistry, physics, materials, energy, and environmental science. This national user facility attracts more than 2000 researchers and students annually from around the world.

  Please visit: als.lbl.gov

• National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC): One of the largest facilities in the world devoted to providing computational resources, NERSC is a world leader in accelerating scientific discovery through computation. NERSC is the primary scientific computing facility for the Office of Science in the U.S. Department of Energy.

  For more information: www.nersc.gov and www.energy.gov