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.

Publications

Publications By Research Area

2014

Hong, Tianzhen, Xiufeng Pang, Oren Schetrit, Liping Wang, Shinichi Kasahara, Yoshinori Yura, and Ryohei Hinokuma."A New Model to Simulate Energy Performance of VRF Systems." (2014).

Lee, Sang Hoon, Tianzhen Hong, and Mary Ann Piette."Review of Existing Energy Retrofit Tools." (2014).

Sun, Kaiyu, Tianzhen Hong, and Siyue Guo."Stochastic Modeling of Overtime Occupancy and Its Application in Building Energy Simulation and Calibration." (2014).

2013

Hong, Tianzhen, Wen-Kuei Chang, and Hung-Wen Lin."A Fresh Look at Weather Impact on Peak Electricity Demand and Energy Use of Buildings Using 30-Year Actual Weather Data."Applied Energy 111 (2013) 333-350. DOI

Zhou, Xin, Tianzhen Hong, and Da Yan."Comparison of Building Energy Modeling Programs: HVAC Systems." (2013).

Nouidui, Thierry Stephane, Michael Wetter, and Wangda Zuo."Functional Mock-Up Unit Import in EnergyPlus For Co-Simulation."13th Conference of International Building Performance Simulation (2013).

Hong, Tianzhen, Wei Feng, Alison Lu, Jianjun Xia, Le Yang, Qi Shen, Piljae Im, and Mahabir Bhandari."Building Energy Monitoring and Analysis." (2013).

Chang, Wen-Kuei, and Tianzhen Hong."Statistical Analysis and Modeling of Occupancy Patterns in Open-Plan Offices using Measured Lighting-Switch Data."Building Simulation 6.1 (2013) 23–32. DOI

O'Donnell, James, Tobias Maile, Cody Rose, Natasa Mrazovic, Elmer Morrissey, Cynthia Regnier, Kristen Parrish, and Vladimir Bazjanac."Transforming BIM to BEM: Generation of Building Geometry for the NASA Ames Sustainability Base BIM." (2013).

Zhou, Xin, Da Yan, Tianzhen Hong, and Dandan Zhu."Building energy modeling programs comparison Research on HVAC systems simulation part." (2013).

Zhou, Xin, Da Yan, Xiaoxin Ren, and Tianzhen Hong."Data Analysis and Modeling of Lighting Energy Use in Large Office Buildings." (2013).

Hong, Tianzhen, William J. N. Turner, and Cheng Li."The Two-Day CERC-BEE Forum on Building Integrated Design and Occupant Behavior: Presentations and Summary." (2013).

2012

Earni, Shankar, Spencer Woodworth, Xiufeng Pang, Jorge Hernandez-Maldonado, Rongxin Yin, Liping Wang, Steve E. Greenberg, John Fiegel, and Alma Rubalcava."Monitoring-based HVAC Commissioning of an Existing Office Building for Energy Efficiency." (2012).

Wang, Liping, Paul A. Mathew, and Xiufeng Pang."Uncertainties in energy consumption introduced by building operations and weather for a medium-size office building."Energy and Buildings 53 (2012) 152 - 158. DOI

Nouidui, Thierry Stephane, Kaustubh Phalak, Wangda Zuo, and Michael Wetter."Validation and Application of the Room Model of the Modelica Buildings Library."Proc. of the 9th International Modelica Conference (2012).

Dutton, Spencer M., Hui Zhang, Yongchao Zhai, Edward A. Arens, Youness Bennani Smires, Samuel L. Brunswick, Kyle S. Konis, and Philip Haves."Application of a stochastic window use model in EnergyPlus."SimBuild 2012, 5th National Conference of IBPSA-USA, August 1-3, 2012 (2012).

Wang, Liping, Philip Haves, and John Breshears."The Energy Saving Potential of Membrane-Based Enthalpy Recovery in VAV System for Commercial Office Buildings."SimBuild 2012 (2012).

Granderson, Jessica, and Phillip N. Price."Evaluation of the Predictive Accuracy of Five Whole-Building Baseline Models." (2012).

Pang, Xiufeng, Michael Wetter, Prajesh Bhattacharya, and Philip Haves."A framework for simulation-based real-time whole building performance assessment."Building and Environment 54 (2012) 100-108.

Wang, Liping, Philip Haves, and Walter F. Buhl."An Improved Simple Chilled Water Cooling Coil Model."SimBuild 2012 IBPSA Conference (2012).

Lin, Hung-Wen, and Tianzhen Hong."An In-Depth Analysis of Space Heating Energy Use in Office Buildings."ACEEE 2012 Summer Study (2012).

Levine, Mark D., Wei Feng, Jing Ke, Tianzhen Hong, and Nan Zhou."A Retrofit Tool for Improving Energy Efficiency of Commercial Buildings."ACEEE 2012 Summer Study (2012).

Maile, Tobias, Mangesh Basarkar, James O'Donnell, Philip Haves, and Kevin Settlemyre."Mapping Hvac Systems for Simulation In EnergyPlus."SimBuild 2012 IBPSA Conference (2012).

Nouidui, Thierry Stephane, Michael Wetter, and Wangda Zuo."Validation of the Window Model of the Modelica Buildings Library." (2012).

Zhu, Dandan, Tianzhen Hong, and Chuang Wang."Comparison of Building Energy Modeling Programs: Building Loads." (2012).