Berkeley Lab opens 'world's most comprehensive building efficiency simulator'

Innovation is brewing in the Bay Area, and it’s not coming from another app development. FLEXLAB, a laboratory dedicated to studying energy efficiency, just opened up at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the hills above UC Berkeley.

The lab is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, and as of now, it is the only one of it’s kind in the world.

“It’s the first that tests system level technologies,” says Cynthia Regnier, FLEXLAB’s executive manager. “[FLEXLAB] provides a platform upon which we could test these systems and revalidate performance and improve it before it gets committed and built in the order of hundreds of thousands of square footage and millions of dollars of investment.”

According to local newspaper Contra Costa Times, startups, architects, designers, utilities and manufacturers in the Silicon Valley are invited to use FLEXLAB for fees adjusted to specific needs.

There are four separate labs to test-drive different technologies: Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems, lighting, windows and the building envelope.

Find out more at FLEXLAB’s official website.

The editors of Building Design+Construction present 10 “Great Solutions” that highlight innovative technology and products that can be used to address some of the many problems Building Teams face in their day-to-day work. Readers are encouraged to submit entries for Great Solutions; if we use yours, you’ll receive a $25 gift certificate. Look for more Great Solutions in 2012 at: www.bdcnetwork.com/greatsolutions/2012.

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