Building Technology and Systems
This focus area addresses the development, evaluation, and integration of building technologies that can improve occupant comfort and reduce energy usage and operating costs. This includes advanced envelopes, ventilation, comfort delivery, primary equipment, sensing, controls, and diagnostics. The work also includes the development of modeling and optimization tools useful in the design and analysis of advanced building technologies and systems. It is a multi-disciplinary effort involving faculty from mechanical, civil, and electrical and computer engineering. There are a variety of testbeds available for demonstrating and evaluating building technologies, including reconfigurable living laboratories that are office spaces for graduate students, a reconfigurable indoor chamber for studying comfort delivery systems, room-scale unoccupied test spaces that allow systematic of study of the combined impact of envelope/facade systems, lighting and thermal systems and controls on energy and comfort, etc.
Facilities:
Sustainable Buildings Technology Laboratory (Living Laboratories)