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

2024

Malik, Jeetika, Tianzhen Hong, Max Wei, and Sea Rotmann."Prioritize energy sufficiency to decarbonize our buildings."Nature Human Behaviour 8.3 (2024) 406-410. DOI

2023

Hong, Tianzhen, Jeetika Malik, Amanda Krelling, William O'Brien, Kaiyu Sun, Roberto Lamberts, and Max Wei."Ten questions concerning thermal resilience of buildings and occupants for climate adaptation."Building and Environment 244 (2023) 110806. DOI

2022

Sun, Kaiyu, Patricia Kusumah, Wanni Zhang, Max Wei, and Tianzhen Hong."Exploring Decarbonization and Clean Energy Pathways for Disadvantaged Communities in California."5th International Conference on Building Energy and Environment (2022).

Zeng, Zhaoyun, Wanni Zhang, Kaiyu Sun, Max Wei, and Tianzhen Hong."Investigation of pre-cooling as a recommended measure to improve residential buildings’ thermal resilience during heat waves."Building and Environment 210 (2022) 108694. DOI

2021

Sun, Kaiyu, Wanni Zhang, Zhaoyun Zeng, Ronnen M Levinson, Max Wei, and Tianzhen Hong."Passive cooling designs to improve heat resilience of homes in underserved and vulnerable communities."Energy and Buildings 252 (2021) 111383. DOI

Wei, Max, Sang Hoon Lee, Tianzhen Hong, Brian Conlon, Lucy McKenzie, Bob Hendron, and Alea German."Approaches to cost-effective near-net zero energy new homes with time-of-use value of energy and battery storage."Advances in Applied Energy 2 (2021) 100018. DOI

Xu, Yujie, Tianzhen Hong, Wanni Zhang, Zhaoyun Zeng, and Max Wei."Heat Vulnerability Index Development and Mapping."SimAUD 2021 (2021).

2018

Tarroja, Brian, Felicia Chiang, Amir AghaKouchak, Scott Samuelsen, Shuba V Raghavan, Max Wei, Kaiyu Sun, and Tianzhen Hong."Translating climate change and heating system electrification impacts on building energy use to future greenhouse gas emissions and electric grid capacity requirements in California."Applied Energy 225 (2018) 522 - 534. DOI

2006

Bhattacharya, Prajesh, X Wei, Andrei G Fedorov, Yogendra K Joshi, Navdeep Bajwa, Anyuan Cao, and Pulickel Ajayan."Carbon Nanotube (CNT)-Centric Thermal Management of Future High Power Microprocessors."IEEE CPMT International Symposium and Exhibition on Advanced Packaging Materials (2006).