| Building Technology and Urban Systems

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.
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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.
- 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.

2000

Pomerantz, Melvin, Brian Pon, Hashem Akbari, and Sheng-Chieh Chang."The effect of pavements' temperatures on air temperatures in large cities." (2000).

Taha, Haider, Alan K Meier, Weijun Gao, and Toshio Ojima."Mitigation of urban heat islands: meteorology, energy, and airquality impacts."Journal of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Engineering 529 (2000) 69-76.

Laitner, John A, Jonathan G Koomey, Ernst Worrell, and Etan Gumerman."Re-estimating the Annual Energy Outlook 2000 Forecast Using Updated Assumptions about the Internet Economy."Eastern Economics Association Conference (2000).

Selkowitz, Stephen E."21st Century Windows: Electrochromic Windows and Other Glazing Technologies."Fenestration Magazine (2000).

Jennings, Judy D, Francis M Rubinstein, Dennis L DiBartolomeo, and Steven L Blanc."Comparison of Control Options in Private Offices in an Advanced Lighting Controls Testbed."Journal of the Illuminating Engineering Society (2000).

Rees, Simon J, Jeffrey D Spitler, Michael J Holmes, and Philip Haves."Comparison of Peak Load Predictions and Treatment of Solar Gains in the Admittance and Heat Balance Load Calculation Procedures."Building Services Engineering Research & Technology 21.2 (2000). DOI

Akbari, Hashem, and Arthur H Rosenfeld."Cool communities."Macmillan Encyclopedia of Energy 1 (2000) 305-8.

Pomerantz, Melvin, Hashem Akbari, and John T Harvey."Cooler reflective pavements give benefits beyond energy savings: durability and illumination."ACEEE 2000 Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings 8 (2000) 293-304.

Griffith, Brent T, Daniel Turler, and Howdy Goudey."Infrared Thermography Systems."The Encyclopedia of Imaging Science and Technology (2000).

Rees, Simon J, Jeffrey D Spitler, Morris G Davies, and Philip Haves."Qualitative Comparison of North American and U.K. Cooling Load Calculation Procedures."International Journal of Heating, Ventilating, Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Research 6.1 (2000) 75-99. DOI

Klems, Joseph H."Solar Heat Gain Through Fenestrations Containing Shading: Procedures for Estimating Performace from Minimal Data." (2000).

Driscoll, Debbie A, Mehry Yazdanian, and Michael J Siminovitch."Structural Stability Analysis of a Quartz Fiber Optic Coupler Under Thermal Loading."Journal of the Illuminating Engineering Society 29.1 (2000) 59-65. DOI

Johnson, Stephen G."The Solid State Lighting Initiative: An Industry/DOE Collaborative Effort."Architectural Lighting (2000).

1999

Page, Erik, and Michael J Siminovitch."Lighting Energy Savings Opportunities in Hotel Guestrooms: Results from a Scoping Study at the Redondo Beach Crown Plaza."2000 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings (1999).

Arasteh, Dariush K, Yu Joe Huang, Robin Mitchell, Robert D Clear, and Christian Kohler."A Database of Window Annual Energy Use in Typical North American Residences."2000 ASHRAE Winter Meeting (1999).

Lyons, Peter R, Dariush K Arasteh, and Charlie Huizenga."Window Performance for Human Thermal Comfort."2000 ASHRAE Winter Meeting (1999).

Koomey, Jonathan G, Kaoru Kawamoto, Bruce Nordman, Mary Ann Piette, and Richard E Brown."Initial comments on 'The Internet Begins with Coal'." (1999).

Taha, Haider, and Robert Bornstein."Urbanization of meteorological models: implications on simulated heat islands and air quality."Proceedings of the International Congress of Biometeorology and International Conference on Urban Climatology (ICB-ICUC) (1999).

Rees, Simon J, and Philip Haves."A Nodal Model for Displacement Ventilation and Chilled Ceiling Systems in Office Spaces."Building Simulation ’99 (1999).

Sowell, Edward F, and Philip Haves."Numerical Performance of a Graph-Theoretic HVAC Simulation Program."Building Simulation ’99 (1999).

Armitage, Robert D, Michael D Rubin, Thomas J Richardson, Nada O'Brien, and Yong Chen."Solid State Gadolinium-Magnesium Hydride Optical Switch."Applied Physics Letters 75.13 (1999) 1863-1865.

Huizenga, Charlie, Dariush K Arasteh, Elizabeth U Finlayson, Robin Mitchell, Brent T Griffith, and Dragan C Curcija."THERM 2.0: A Building Component Model for Steady-State Two-Dimensional Heat Transfer."Building Simulation 99, International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA) (1999).

Mitchell, Robin, Yu Joe Huang, Dariush K Arasteh, Robert Sullivan, and Santosh Phillip."RESFEN 3.1: A PC Program for Calculating the Heating and Cooling Energy Use of Windows in Residential Buildings." (1999).

Hong, Tianzhen, Siaw K Chou, and T.Y Bong."A design day for building load and energy estimation."Building and Environment 34.4 (1999) 469-477. DOI

Selkowitz, Stephen E."High Performance Glazing Systems: Architectural Opportunities for the 21st Century."Glass Processing Days 99 Conference (1999).