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

2016

Yu, Xinqiao, Da Yan, Kaiyu Sun, Tianzhen Hong, and Dandan Zhu."A Comparative Study on Energy Performance of Variable Refrigerant Flow Systems and Variable Air Volume Systems in Office Buildings."Applied Energy (2016).

Sun, Kaiyu, and Tianzhen Hong."A Simulation Approach to Estimate Energy Savings Potential of Occupant Behavior Measures."Energy and Buildings (2016).

Chen, Yixing, Xuan Luo, and Tianzhen Hong."An Agent-Based Occupancy Simulator for Building Performance Simulation." (2016).

Liang, Xin, Tianzhen Hong, and Geoffrey Qiping Shen."Improving the accuracy of energy baseline models for commercial buildings with occupancy data."Applied Energy (2016).

D'Oca, Simona, Stefano P Corgnati, Anna Laura Pisello, and Tianzhen Hong."Introduction to an occupant behavior motivation survey framework." (2016).

Zhang, Rongpeng, and Tianzhen Hong."Modeling and Simulation of Operational Faults of HVAC Systems Using Energyplus." (2016).

Liang, Xin, Tianzhen Hong, and Geoffrey Qiping Shen."Occupancy data analytics and prediction: a case study." (2016).

Zhang, Lei, Rongpeng Zhang, Yu Zhang, Tianzhen Hong, Qinglin Meng, and Yanshan Feng."The Impact of Evaporation Process on Thermal Performance of Roofs - Model Development and Numerical Analysis."Energy and Buildings (2016).

2015

Hong, Tianzhen, Cheng Li, and Da Yan."Updates to the China Design Standard for Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings."Energy Policy 87 (2015) 187-198. DOI

Yan, Da, William O'Brien, Tianzhen Hong, Xiaohang Feng, H. H Burak Gunay, Farhang Tahmasebi, and Ardeshir Mahdavi."Occupant Behavior Modeling for Building Performance Simulation: Current State and Future Challenges."Energy and Buildings 107 (2015) 264-278. DOI

Hong, Tianzhen, Simona D'Oca, William J. N Turner, and Sarah C Taylor-Lange."An Ontology to Represent Energy-related Occupant Behavior in Buildings Part I: Introduction to the DNAs Framework."Building and Environment 92 (2015) 764-777. DOI

Hong, Tianzhen, Mary Ann Piette, Yixing Chen, Sang Hoon Lee, Sarah C Taylor-Lange, Rongpeng Zhang, Kaiyu Sun, and Phillip N Price."Commercial Building Energy Saver: An energy retrofit analysis toolkit."Applied Energy 159 (2015). DOI

Hong, Tianzhen, Kaiyu Sun, Rongpeng Zhang, Ryohei Hinokuma, Shinichi Kasahara, and Yoshinori Yura."Development and validation of a new variable refrigerant flow systemmodel in EnergyPlus."Energy and Buildings 117 (2015). DOI

Lee, Sang Hoon, Tianzhen Hong, Mary Ann Piette, and Sarah C Taylor-Lange."Energy retrofit analysis toolkit for commercial buildings: A review." 89 (2015) 1087-1100. DOI

Hong, Tianzhen, Simona D'Oca, Sarah C Taylor-Lange, William J. N Turner, Yixing Chen, and Stefano P Corgnati."An Ontology to Represent Energy-Related Occupant Behavior in Buildings. Part II: Implementation of the DNAS framework using an XML schema."Building and Environment 94.1 (2015) 196-205. DOI

Lee, Sang Hoon, Tianzhen Hong, Mary Ann Piette, Geof Sawaya, Yixing Chen, and Sarah C Taylor-Lange."Accelerating the energy retrofit of commercial buildings using a database of energy efficiency performance."Energy (2015). DOI

Ren, Xiaoxin, Da Yan, and Tianzhen Hong."Data Mining of Space Heating System Performance in Affordable Housing."Building and Environment 89 (2015) 1-13. DOI

D'Oca, Simona, and Tianzhen Hong."Occupancy Schedules Learning Process Through a Data Mining Framework."Energy and Buildings 88 (2015) 395-408. DOI

Zhou, Xin, Da Yan, Tianzhen Hong, and Xiaoxin Ren."Data Analysis and Stochastic Modeling of Lighting Energy Use in Large Office Buildings in China."Energy and Buildings 86 (2015) 275-287. DOI

Feng, Xiaohang, Da Yan, and Tianzhen Hong."Simulation of Occupancy in Buildings."Energy and Buildings 87 (2015) 348-359. DOI

D'Oca, Simona, and Tianzhen Hong."A Data-mining Approach to Discover Patterns of Window Opening and Closing Behavior in Offices." (2015).

Sun, Kaiyu, Tianzhen Hong, Sarah C Taylor-Lange, and Mary Ann Piette."A pattern-based automated approach to building energy model calibration." (2015).

Li, Cheng, Tianzhen Hong, and Da Yan."An Insight into Actual Energy Use and Its Drivers in High-Performance Buildings." (2015).

Hong, Tianzhen, Hongsan Sun, Yixing Chen, Sarah C Taylor-Lange, and Da Yan."An occupant behavior modeling tool for co-simulation."Energy and Buildings (2015).

Lee, Sang Hoon, Tianzhen Hong, Geof Sawaya, Yixing Chen, and Mary Ann Piette."DEEP: A Database of Energy Efficiency Performance to Accelerate Energy Retrofitting of Commercial Buildings." (2015).