Testing Capabilities

Testing Facilities

We offer an extensive array of testing capabilities for material characterization and performance monitoring of a wide range of building technologies.

Overview

The Building Technology and Urban Systems Division at Berkeley Lab has an extensive array of testing capabilities for material characterization and performance monitoring of a wide range of building technologies.

FLEXLAB

Whole Building

  • Berkeley Lab offers FLEXLAB®, a set of testbeds and simulation platforms for research, development, and demonstration of low energy building technologies, control systems, and building systems integration.

    Please visit: flexlab.lbl.gov

spectro radiometer

Lighting

Our Lighting Systems Test Facilities aid research that improves the energy efficiency of lighting systems. For more information: facades.lbl.gov/lighting-systems-laboratory

  • Spectro Radiometer: Measures the light output of a light source at each wavelength.

Advanced Windows Test Facility

Windows & Envelope Materials

  • Advanced Windows Test Facility: Tests new window technologies for energy savings and occupant comfort. This multi-room laboratory simulates real-world office spaces and measures the performance of commercially-available and prototype window systems such as electrochromic windows and automatically controlled shutters and blinds.

    Please visit: facades.lbl.gov/advanced-windows-testbed

photo-goniometer

Solar-optical Properties Laboratory

The Solar-optical properties Laboratory has a complete set of instruments designed to characterize the detailed radiometric and optical properties of window glazing and shading materials. Find out more at: windows.lbl.gov/solar-optical-properties-laboratory

pelletron

Material Characterization

  • Dektak 150 Surface Profiler: Measures the thickness and deposition rates of thin films grown in our coating lab.
  • Pelletron: An electrostatic ion accelerator made for ion beam analysis of materials.

Mobile Windows Test Facility

Thermography and Heat Transfer

Thin Film & Deposition Systems

  • Coating Lab: Contains chambers for growing thin film window coatings.
  • Plasma Applications Coating Lab: Contains chambers for growing thin film window coatings. For more information: facades.lbl.gov/plasma-assisted-deposition-laboratory
  • Solar Control Thin Films Laboratory: Develops novel thin film coatings, deposition technologies, and device systems for next-generation, energy-efficient windows.

The Advanced Light Source (ALS)

Additional Berkeley Lab Facilities

In addition to the above Division-specific facilities, Berkeley Lab is home to a number of world-class facilities, including:

  • Advanced Light Source (ALS): A particle accelerator that generates bright beams of x-rays for scientific research in biology, chemistry, physics, materials, energy, and environmental science. This national user facility attracts more than 2000 researchers and students annually from around the world.

    Please visit: als.lbl.gov

  • National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC): One of the largest facilities in the world devoted to providing computational resources, NERSC is a world leader in accelerating scientific discovery through computation. NERSC is the primary scientific computing facility for the Office of Science in the U.S. Department of Energy.

    For more information: www.nersc.gov and www.energy.gov

FLEXLAB Executive Director
Mechanical Engineer
Staff Scientist
Scientific Engineering Associate