Within an electric grid, timing is everything. "It's not how much power you use, it's when you use it," says Mary Ann Piette, who directs the Demand Response Research Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The biggest benefits of adjusting demand come with automation. Piette and her colleagues have spent nine years developing standards for how utilities communicate with buildings' controls. Each state must adopt standards individually, but researchers this year are agreeing on grid specifications that all states can share, easing widespread adoption. Piette says, "With minimal retrofit to controls, today's buildings can provide a significant reduction to their peak electric loads." Shifting load by just a few minutes can make a crucial difference—for example, temporarily dimming warehouse lights by 10 percent. Such technology can lower prices and reduce the need for new transmission lines and power plants.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.