News

October 12, 1999
Your New House, a home improvement show airing on the Discovery channel, will broadcast two segments about advanced energy-efficient technologies in development in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division on October 5 and 7.The October 5th show will air segments showcasing research on three technologies at Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division. In the first, Berkeley Lab... Read more
September 14, 1999
EETD scientists recently won two awards for authoring two out of three of the "best" papers published in the journal Indoor Air in 1996 through 1998. The awards were announced at Indoor Air '99, which was held in Scotland.Ten Brinke, JoAnne, Alfred Hodgson, William Fisk, Joan Daisey, Steve Selvin, Cathy Koshland, and Mark Mendell. "Development of new VOC exposure metrics and their relationship to... Read more
June 16, 1999
Scientists at Berkeley Lab and at the Quantum Group Inc. (QGI) in San Diego have developed a new lightweight and inexpensive carbon monoxide sensor and monitoring system which is more accurate than the personal CO monitors currently available on the market. "About 19,000 accidental carbon monoxide poisonings were reported by the American Association of Poison Control Centers in 1995," said Michael... Read more
May 25, 1999
EETD and Berkeley Lab's Engineering Division recently worked together to create a thermally insulated, more comfortable, and efficient car. The project is a collaboration between Berkeley Lab and Visteon Automotive Systems which is also funding the project. The research is associated with the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV), which brings together U.S. government researchers and... Read more
May 19, 1999
EETD's Frank Asaro and Robert D. Giauque worked with D. Adan-Bayewitz of Israel's Bar-Ilan University to demonstrate the effectiveness of a new methodology of X-ray fluorescence in determining the origin of ancient pottery. Determining the origin of ancient pottery can help archaeologists better understand the relationships and influences between peoples. Correlating pottery fragments found in... Read more
May 11, 1999
Max Sherman, group leader of EETD's Energy Performance of Buildings Group has written two articles describing the draft ASHRAE Standard 62.2P in the May 1999 editions of the ASHRAE Journal and Contracting Business. Sherman is the chairman of the ASHRAE Standard Project Committee 62.2P. This standard, "Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Low-Rise Residential Buildings," is now ready... Read more
December 17, 1998
EETD researchers have contributed a series of findings to the new Alternative Calculation Method (ACM) used in Title 24, California's building code. The ACM, the primary design method for new homes, allows designers trade-offs to achieve levels of energy efficiency in flexible ways.The research shows that lower duct efficiency defaults provide incentives within the standard for designers to... Read more
December 15, 1998
LBNL's insurance initiative has released several new reports: an inventory of energy-efficient and renewable energy technologies from nine national laboratories that help prevent insurance losses, a review of insurance industry concerns pertaining to indoor air-quality problems, a report on ultraviolet water disinfection for U.S. natural disaster recovery situations, and a case study-carried out... Read more
December 11, 1998
With DOE and CIEE co-support, researchers Dariush Arasteh, Brent Griffith, Chad Goudey, Christian Kohler, and Daniel Turner developed a prototype of a simple hand-held detector to determine the coating (none, regular low-e, or spectrally selective low-e) on a double-glazed window. An infrared light-emitting diode and phototransistor measure reflectance in the near-infrared portion of the solar... Read more
December 8, 1998
EETD researcher Don Lucas participated in a recent multivolume University of California study of the gasoline additive MTBE. Along with fellow researchers Bob Sawyer and Cathy Koshland, Lucas studied the effects of MTBE on air emissions from vehicles. The study, "Health and Environmental Assessment of MTBE," was delivered to the Governor and the California legislature in November 1998.... Read more
December 2, 1998
Working with the U.S. Postal Service, EETD researchers have developed an integrated, energy-efficient task-lighting system for individual mail-sorting stations. The new system features smaller fixtures with new optics, fluorescent lamps, and electronic ballasts mounted in a high-efficiency fixture that sends 80 percent of the light to the work surface. Each workstation is controlled by an... Read more
November 17, 1998
The Efficient Windows web site is sponsored by the Efficient Windows Collaborative (EWC) with support from the U.S. Department of Energy's Windows and Glazings Program and the participation of industry members. This web site provides unbiased information on the benefits of energy-efficient windows, descriptions of how they work, and recommendations for their selection and use. EWC members have... Read more
September 15, 1998
The Lighting Systems Research Group is conducting ongoing research developing safe, energy efficient alternatives to the ubiquitous halogen torchiere by employing various novel light sources in the torchiere fixture. One of our most successful designs is the CFL torchiere which recently won the "Best of What's New" Grand Prize Award for Home Technology from Popular Science magazine. The CFL... Read more
August 11, 1998
NAREEP is a DOE-funded joint project of Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley that provides technical assistance to Native American reservations in the areas of renewable energy and energy efficiency. Its purpose is to respond to the desire of Native Americans for cost-effective, culturally appropriate, environmentally benign energy services for tribal community needs and economic development. NAREEP's... Read more
May 12, 1998
How do the Japanese view leaking electricity? Find out what this poster says!... Read more
November 17, 1997
A surprisingly large number of appliances—from computer peripherals to cable TV boxes to radios—continue to consume electricity even after they have been switched off. Other appliances, such as cordless telephones, remote garage door openers, and battery chargers don't get switched off but draw power even when they are not performing their principal functions. The energy used while the... Read more
August 12, 1997
None of the three Home Energy Rating Systems (HERS) we tested showed any clear relationship between the predicted and actual energy cost of a rated house. While accuracy does not appear to be major concern of the HERS industry or lenders who participate in HERS programs, it is important for consumers who invest based on HERS ratings. Accuracy can be improved with additional research and possibly... Read more
June 16, 1997
A large fraction of the energy consumed inside a "high-tech factory" is much like that of an office building. Why is this important? Office-like energy use is often overlooked because the building is officially a factory. The high-tech sector is the fastest-growing part of the US economy, so the number office buildings hiding in these factories will increase.... Read more
April 15, 1997
It should be. The EPA has worked with manufacturers of office equipment (including PCs and Monitors) so that much new equipment can enter low-power ("sleep") modes when not in active use. This has the potential to save significant amounts of energy, but only when the feature is properly enabled and working. The Building Energy Analysis Group has produced a "User Guide" to help people understand... Read more
March 18, 1997
An important aspect of comparing energy efficiency standards on refrigerators is the impact of energy test procedures. Two years ago, Japan implemented a new test procedure. As a result, the listed energy use of Japanese refrigerators suddenly jumped 40 percent.... Read more
November 18, 1996
Aerosol sealing is a new technology for internally sealing air leaks in heating and cooling ducts. This technology blows aerosolized adhesive particles into the duct system and deposits them at the leakage sites, sealing the leaks without depositing on duct surfaces. Visit the Aerosol Duct Sealing Technology web site to find a section which takes you on a tour, showing the ducts of a house being... Read more
November 13, 1996
The insurance industry has taken interest in global climate change as a source of losses. This web site describes how selected energy-efficiency strategies bear the benefit of simultaneously reducing the likelihood of catastrophic climate-related insurance losses as well as ordinary losses due to fire, freeze damage, professional liability, and the like.... Read more
November 5, 1996
Laboratory-type facilities use a considerable amount of energy resources. They are also important to the local and state economy, and energy costs are a factor in the overall competitiveness of industries utilizing laboratory-type facilities. Although the potential for energy savings is considerable, improving energy efficiency in laboratory-type facilities is no easy task, and there are many... Read more