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

2015

Price, Lynn K, Nan Zhou, David Fridley, Stephanie Ohshita, Gang He, Hu Min, Yong Zhou, and Lixuan Hong."Promoting Energy Efficiency as the First Fuel Through Enabling Local Government Action in China."European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ECEEE) Summer Study on Energy Efficiency, June 1-6, 2015 (2015).

Mullen, Nasim A, Jina Li, Marion L Russell, Michael Spears, Brennan Less, and Brett C Singer."Results of the California Healthy Homes Indoor Air Quality Study of 2011-2013: Impact of Natural Gas Appliances on Air Pollutant Concentrations."Indoor Air (2015). DOI

Mathew, Paul A, Laurel N Dunn, Michael D Sohn, Andrea C Mercado, Claudine Custudio, and Travis Walter."Big-data for building energy performance: Lessons from assembling a very large national database of building energy use."Applied Energy 140 (2015) 85 - 93. DOI

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

Logue, Jennifer M, William J. N Turner, Iain S Walker, and Brett C Singer."A simplified model for estimating population-scale energy impacts of building envelope air-tightening and mechanical ventilation retrofits."Journal of Building Performance Simulation 9.1 (2015). 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

Less, Brennan, and Iain S Walker."Deep Energy Retrofit Guidance for the Building America Solutions Center." (2015).

Zhou, Nan, Gang He, Christopher J Williams, and David Fridley."ELITE Cities: A Low-carbon Eco-city Evaluation Tool for China."Ecological Indicators 48 (2015) 448-456. DOI

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

Rapp, Vi H, Brett C Singer, J Chris Stratton, Craig P Wray, and Brennan Less."Assessment of Literature Related to Combustion Appliance Venting Systems." (2015).

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

Mills, Evan."A New Appraisal- Lessons from the History of Efforts to Value Green and High-Performance Home Attributes in the United States." (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).

Mills, Evan."Can Technology Free Developing Countries from Light Poverty?." (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).

Wetter, Michael, Marcus Fuchs, and Thierry Stephane Nouidui."Design choices for thermofluid flow components and systems that are exported as Functional Mockup Units." (2015).

Chan, Wanyu R, Iain S Walker, and Max H Sherman."Durable Airtightness in Single-Family Dwellings: Field Measurements and Analysis." (2015).

Less, Brennan, Nasim A Mullen, Brett C Singer, and Iain S Walker."Indoor Air Quality in 24 California Residences Designed as High-Performance Homes." (2015). DOI

Walker, Iain S, and J Chris Stratton."Laboratory Evaluation Of Air Flow Measurement Methods For Residential HVAC Returns."ASHRAE Transactions 21, Part 2 (2015).

Mills, Evan."Looking For Value in All The Wrong Places: Toward Expanded Consideration of Green and High Performance Attributes in Non-residential Property Appraisals in the United States." (2015).

Ohshita, Stephanie, Nan Zhou, Lynn K Price, David Fridley, Nina Khanna, Lixuan Hong, Hongyou Lu, Cecilia Fino-Chen, Gang He, and Jinyue Yan."Low Carbon Development for Cities: Methods and Measures."Handbook of Clean Energy Systems 6 (2015) 1-23. DOI

Wetter, Michael, Wangda Zuo, Thierry Stephane Nouidui, and Xiufeng Pang."Modelica Buildings Library." (2015).

Price, Phillip N, Nathan J Addy, and Sila Kiliccote."Predictability and Persistance of Demand Response Load Shed in Buildings." (2015).