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

Szum, Carolyn, Han Li, Robin Mitchell, Sydney Applegate, Billierae Engelman, Nicholas Long, Yassen Roussev, and Eric Noller."New U.S. Data Tools are Playing a Crucial Role in Decarbonizing Buildings at Speed, Scale, and Low Cost."2024 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings (2024). DOI

Casquero-Modrego, Nuria, M Venkatraman, and Iain S Walker."The Costs of Decarbonizing Multifamily Buildings in DACs and Rural Areas."2024 Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings. American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) (2024).

Xu, Yujie, Pouya Vahmani, Andrew Jones, and Tianzhen Hong."Anthropogenic heat from buildings in Los Angeles County: A simulation framework and assessment."Sustainable Cities and Society 107 (2024) 105468. DOI

Krelling, Amanda Fraga, Roberto Lamberts, Jeetika Malik, Wanni Zhang, Kaiyu Sun, and Tianzhen Hong."Defining weather scenarios for simulation-based assessment of thermal resilience of buildings under current and future climates: A case study in Brazil."Sustainable Cities and Society 107 (2024) 105460. DOI

Liang, Wei, Han Li, Sicheng Zhan, Adrian Chong, and Tianzhen Hong."Energy flexibility quantification of a tropical net-zero office building using physically consistent neural network-based model predictive control."Advances in Applied Energy 14 (2024) 100167. DOI

Jain, Anubhav, Tianzhen Hong, Mary Ann Piette, Michael D Sohn, Will Gorman, Alexandre Moreira, Lazlo Paul, Haitam Laarabi, and Maher Alghalayini."Frontiers in Energy Storage: Next-Generation Artificial Intelligence (AI)." (2024).

Ding, Chao, Jing Ke, Mark D Levine, and Nan Zhou."Potential of artificial intelligence in reducing energy and carbon emissions of commercial buildings at scale."Nature Communications 15 (2024). DOI

Robinson, Alastair, Samuel Fernandes, Tianzhen Hong, Sang Hoon Lee, Ronnen M Levinson, and Mary Ann Piette."Potential Urban Heat Island Countermeasures and Building Energy Efficiency Improvements in Los Angeles County." (2024).

Wu, Jiyuan, Lan Wang, Tianzhen Hong, Qinran Hu, and Wei Wang."Revealing and optimizing the design of cover installation for outdoor units of air conditioners through CFD simulations and thermodynamic modeling."Journal of Building Engineering 87 (2024) 109014. DOI

Coraci, Davide, Silvio Brandi, Tianzhen Hong, and Alfonso Capozzoli."An innovative heterogeneous transfer learning framework to enhance the scalability of deep reinforcement learning controllers in buildings with integrated energy systemsAbstract."Building Simulation 17.5 (2024) 739 - 770. DOI

Lee, Sang Hoon, Tianzhen Hong, Minh Le, Lujuana Medina, Yujie Xu, Alastair Robinson, and Mary Ann Piette."Assessment of energy and thermal resilience performance to inform climate mitigation of multifamily buildings in disadvantaged communities."Sustainable Cities and Society 104 (2024) 105319. DOI

Sawe, Nik, Hongyou Lu, Jeffrey Rissman, Zhiyu Tian, and Nan Zhou."Clean Industry in China: A Techno-Economic Comparison of Electrified Heat Technologies, Barriers, and Policy Options." (2024). DOI

Ham, Sang woo, Lazlo Paul, Donghun Kim, Marco Pritoni, Richard E Brown, and Jingjuan Feng."Decarbonization of heat pump dual fuel systems using a practical model predictive control: Field demonstration in a small commercial building."Applied Energy 361 (2024) 122935. DOI

Pan, Xiyu, Yujie Xu, and Tianzhen Hong."Surrogate modelling for urban building energy simulation based on the bidirectional long short-term memory model."Journal of Building Performance Simulation (2024) 1 - 19. DOI

Li, Han, Giuseppe Pinto, Marco Savino Piscitelli, Alfonso Capozzoli, and Tianzhen Hong."Building thermal dynamics modeling with deep transfer learning using a large residential smart thermostat dataset."Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence 130 (2024) 107701. DOI

Jiang, Jingjing, Deyun Yin, Zhuoluo Sun, Bin Ye, and Nan Zhou."Global trend of methane abatement inventions and widening mismatch with methane emissions."Nature Climate Change 14.4 (2024) 393 - 401. DOI

Zhao, Haoran, Wanyu R Chan, Chrissi Antonopoulos, Eric Martin, Paul Francisco, Iain S Walker, and Brett C Singer."Mechanical Ventilation and IAQ in Recently Constructed US Homes."Indoor Air 2024 (2024).

Walker, Iain S, Brennan Less, Cara Lozinsky, David M Lorenzetti, Nuria Casquero-Modrego, and Michael D Sohn."Compartmentalization and Ventilation System Impacts on Air and Contaminant Transport for Multifamily Buildings."International Journal of Ventilation. (2024). DOI

Shackelford, Jordan, Spencer M Dutton, Cynthia Regnier, Wanyu R Chan, and Alastair Robinson."Modeled Retrofit Package Performance for Schools." (2024). DOI

Lu, Hongyou, Kairui You, Wei Feng, Nan Zhou, David Fridley, Lynn Price, and Stephane de la Rue du Can."Reducing China’s building material embodied emissions: Opportunities and challenges to achieve carbon neutrality in building materials."iScience 27.3 (2024) 109028. DOI

Lu, Hongyou, Stephane de la Rue du Can, Virginie E Letschert, Hon LeungCurt Wong, Nan Zhou, Farid Wijaya, Faricha Hidayati, and Dwi Cahyo Husodo."Industry Decarbonization Roadmaps for Indonesia: Opportunities and challenges to net-zero emissions." (2024).

Webster, Brett, Lucas Toffoli, Martha Campbell, Aven Satre-Meloy, Leslie Badger, Alison Donovan, Damon Lane, Kevin McGrath, Eric Wilson, Janet Reyna, Cheryn Metzger, and Tyler Pilet."Accelerating Residential Building Decarbonization: Market Guidance to Scale Zero-Carbon-Aligned Buildings."Advanced Building Construction (2024).

Park, Jiwon, Kwang Ho Lee, Sang Hoon Lee, and Tianzhen Hong."Benefits assessment of cool skin and ventilated cavity skin: Saving energy and mitigating heat and grid stress."Building and Environment 247 (2024) 111027. DOI

Gerke, Brian F, Marius Stübs, Samanvitha Murthy, Aditya Khandekar, Peter Cappers, Richard E Brown, and Mary Ann Piette."Potential bill impacts of dynamic electricity pricing on California utility customers." (2024). DOI

Haddad, Shamila, Wanni Zhang, Riccardo Paolini, Kai Gao, Muzahim Altheeb, Abdulrahman Al Mogirah, Abdullatif BinMoammar, Tianzhen Hong, Ansar Khan, C Cartalis, A Polydorose, and Mattheos Santamouris."Quantifying the Energy Impact of Heat Mitigation in Cities: A Catalyst for Building Energy Saving."Nature Cities (2024).