Bio

I am a senior scientist in the Building Technology and Urban Systems Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

My other titles include:

• Adjunct Professor, Environmental Science & Policy Department and Faculty Researcher at the Energy and Efficiency Institute, University of California, Davis.
• Leader, Electronics, Lighting, and Networks Group, Energy Technologies Area
• Founder, Home Energy Magazine
• Four years as a Senior Energy Analyst at the International Energy Agency in Paris
• Consultant and lecturer for the World Bank, Federal Trade Commission, IEA, McKinsey, and others

I study how people and equipment use energy and opportunities to reduce energy consumption. I especially enjoy exploring aspects that are not measured or were overlooked (that's how I discovered standby power). I focus on buildings, equipment and, more recently, transportation. I approach these topics from many directions, including:

• Energy test procedures for appliances (including thermostats, cars and trucks)
• Field measurements of energy use
• Technical potentials for energy savings
• Economics and behavior related to energy consumption

Many people know me for my work on standby power use but my interests are actually much broader, including:

• Technologies to reduce miscellaneous uses of energy in building (including the "Standzero" approach)
• Market failures in the end use of energy – both quantifying and overcoming them
• Designing more effective residential thermostats (which today control ~10% of U.S. energy use)
• Off-test fuel consumption in vehicles
• Saving electricity in a hurry (and gradually)
• Comparisons of laboratory and field measurements of electronics and appliances
• Supply curves of conserved energy
• Real-time display of regional electricity demand and supply
• Teaching concepts of energy use and efficiency
• Passionately avoiding administrative responsibilities

Download PDFS: Most recent CV | Full list of my publications | My most frequently visited paper, "How to Review a Technical Paper"