| 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.
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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.

2011

Zuo, Wangda, and Michael Wetter."Advanced simulations of building energy and control systems with an example of chilled water plant modeling."the 8th International Forum and Workshop on Combined Heat, Air, Moisture and Pollutant Simulations (CHAMPS 2011) (2011).

Bazjanac, Vladimir, Tobias Maile, James O'Donnell, Cody Rose, and Natasa Mrazovic."Data Enviroments and Processing in Sem-Automated Simulation with EnergyPlus."CIB W078-W102 (2011).

Pang, Xiufeng, and Mingsheng Liu."Prevention of Compressor Short Cycling in Direct-Expansion (DX) Rooftop Units, Part 1: Theoretical Analysis and Simulation."ASHRAE Transactions 117.2 (2011) 666-676.

Pang, Xiufeng, and Mingsheng Liu."Prevention of Compressor Short Cycling in Direct-Expansion (DX) Rooftop Units— Part 2: Field Investigation."ASHRAE Transactions 117.2 (2011) 677-685.

Wetter, Michael, Wangda Zuo, and Thierry Stephane Nouidui."Recent developments of the Modelica Buildings library for building energy and control systems."the 8th International Modelica Conference (2011).

2010

Bailey, Trevor, Zheng O'Neill, Madhusudana Shashanka, Prajesh Bhattacharya, Philip Haves, and Xiufeng Pang."Automated Continuous Commissioning of Commercial Buildings."DoD SERDP-ESTCP Partners in Environmental Technology Technical Symposium and Workshop (2010).

Trcka, Marija, Jan Hensen, and Michael Wetter."Co-simulation for performance prediction of integrated building and HVAC systems - An analysis of solution characteristics using a two-body system."Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory 18.7 (2010) 957-970. DOI

Hong, Tianzhen, and William J Fisk."Assessment of Energy Savings Potential from the Use of Demand Control Ventilation Systems in General Office Spaces in California."Building Simulation 3.2 (2010) 117-124. DOI

Ma, Yudong, Francesco Borrelli, Brandon Hencey, Brian E Coffey, Sorin Bengea, and Philip Haves."Model Predictive Control of Thermal Energy Storage in Building Cooling Systems."American Control Conference (2010).

Hong, Tianzhen, and Stephen E Selkowitz."Assessment of Energy Impact of Window Technologies for Commercial Buildings."2010 ACEEE Summer Study (2010).

Kämpf, Jérôme Henri, Michael Wetter, and Darren Robinson."A comparison of global optimization algorithms with standard benchmark functions and real-world applications using EnergyPlus."Journal of Building Performance Simulation 3.2 (2010) 103-120. DOI

Najafi, Massieh, David M Auslander, Philip Haves, and Michael D Sohn."A Statistical Pattern Analysis Framework for Rooftop Unit Diagnostics."International Journal of Heating, Ventilating, Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Research (2010).

Keane, Marcus, Andrea Costa, James O'Donnell, Karsten Menzel, and Alan Dirk."BuildWise Final Report." (2010).

Coffey, Brian E, Philip Haves, Michael Wetter, Brandon Hencey, Francesco Borrelli, Yudong Ma, and Sorin Bengea."Development and Testing of Model Predictive Control for a Campus Chilled Water Plant with Thermal Storage."2010 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings (2010).

Victor, Norrefeldt, Thierry Stephane Nouidui, and Gunnar Gruen."Development of an isothermal 2D zonal air volume model with impulse conservation."Clima 2010, 10th Rehva World Congress "Sustainable Energy Use in Buildings" (2010).

Raferty, Paul, Marcus Keane, James O'Donnell, and Andrea Costa."Energy Monitoring Systems value, issues and recommendations based on five case studies."Clima 2010 conference (2010).

Zuo, Wangda, and Qingyan Chen."Fast and informative flow simulation in a building by using fast fluid dynamics model on graphics processing unit."Building and Environment 45.3 (2010) 747-757.

Zuo, Wangda, and Qingyan Chen."Fast simulation of smoke transport in buildings."the 41st International HVAC&R congress (2010).

Hu, Jianjun, Wangda Zuo, and Qingyan Chen."Impact of time-splitting schemes on the accuracy of FFD simulations."the 7th International Indoor Air Quality, Ventilation and Energy Conservation in Buildings Conference (IAQVEC 2010) (2010) 55-60.

Liu, Mingsheng, Jingjuan Feng, Zhan Wang, Keke Zheng, and Xiufeng Pang."Impacts of Static Pressure Reset on VAV System Air Leakage, Fan Power, and Thermal Energy."ASHRAE Transactions 116.1 (2010) 428-436.

Zuo, Wangda, Jianjun Hu, and Qingyan Chen."Improvements on FFD modeling by using different numerical schemes."Numerical Heat Transfer, Part B Fundamentals 58.1 (2010) 1-16.

Zuo, Wangda, and Qingyan Chen."Improvements on the fast fluid dynamics model for indoor airflow simulation."the 4th National Conference of IBPSA-USA (SimBuild2010) (2010) 539-546.

Najafi, Massieh, David M Auslander, Peter L Bartlett, Philip Haves, and Michael D Sohn."Modeling and Measurement Constraints in Fault Diagnostics for HVAC Systems."ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Controls (2010).

Zuo, Wangda, and Qingyan Chen."Simulations of air distribution in buildings by FFD on GPU."HVAC&R Research 16.6 (2010) 783-796.

Narayanan, Satish, Michael G Apte, Philip Haves, Mary Ann Piette, and John Elliott."Systems Approach to Energy Efficient Building Operation: Case Studies and Lessons Learned in a University Campus."2010 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings (2010).