Cynthia Regnier

Cynthia Regnier

Cindy is the Whole Building Systems Department Head and FLEXLAB® Executive Director at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. FLEXLAB® (Facility for Low Energy eXperiments in Buildings) is Berkeley Lab’s series of experimental testbeds dedicated to integrated and low carbon building, DER and grid systems integration research and development. She also manages several research projects focused on community scale deployment of coordinated grid interactive efficient buildings, and deployment of low energy systems and technologies. These include the development of integrated systems incentive programs for utilities, and solutions focused on small commercial buildings and schools. Prior to joining LBNL in 2009, she spent 13+ years on design of innovative, integrated HVAC systems, including AIA COTE Top 10, LEED Platinum buildings, and a 200,000sf zero carbon science museum. Her Bachelor’s degree is in Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering from Queen’s University, Canada, and she holds professional engineering licenses in California, USA and Ontario, Canada.

Contact Information

Phone: 510-486-7011

Education

B.Sc.Eng., Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering, Queen's University Kingston Canada, 1994

Awards

Spot: Multifamily Building Efficiency Screening Tool Team -  October 31st 2023

Rapid development of the comprehensive and easy to use Multifamily Building Efficiency Screening Tool for HUD.

HUD MBEST Tool Development -  May 25th 2023

A team of BTUS researchers created the Multifamily Building Efficiency Screening Tool (MBEST) for HUD's Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP) [https://www.hud.gov/grrp/leadingedge]. The GRRP covers grants and loans of almost $5 billion of investment in multifamily housing. The tool will be used to screen multifamily buildings and understand current opportunities for energy efficiency improvements.  The tool allows building managers and owners to enter information about lighting, HVAC heating/cooling systems, domestic hot water systems, and the building envelope to come up with a building score that allows HUD to make decisions about investing in building upgrades. The key reason for this SPOT nomination is that the LBNL team worked under considerable time pressure to create the tool in just a few weeks to meet HUDs deadline for launching the program and utilized their expertise and knowledge over a broad range of multifamily building performance to make the tool both comprehensive and easy to use. 

Spot: Cynthia Regnier -  November 22nd 2022

For exceptional performance in organizing and leading the Connected Communities kickoff event with DOE VIPs and major organizations.

2019 R&D 100 Award: Commercial Building Energy Saver -  October 30th 2019

The Commercial Building Energy Saver (CBES), a software toolkit that enables equitable access to building deep retrofit and zero-net energy strategies for these buildings, won a 2019 R&D 100 Award in the software/services category.

The development team includes Berkeley Lab researchers Sang Hoon Lee, Xuan Luo, Kaiyu Sun, Tianzhen Hong, Cynthia Regnier, Mary Ann Piette (all pictured left to right), Yixing Chen, Rongpeng Zhang, Sarah C. Taylor-Lange, and Philip Price. The project was supported by the California Energy Commission and the Department of Energy.

2014 Director's Awards for Exceptional Achievement: Tech Transfer -  September 3rd 2015

Entrepreneurism and development of relationships with industry

Publications

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2012