EETD News #11, Vol. 3, No. 4
Table of Contents

California Consumers Kept the Lights On

California consumers—not mild weather or the cooling economy—should get credit for avoiding blackouts and keeping the lights on in summer 2001 by embracing energy efficiency and conservation and reducing their peak demand by 3,000 to 5,500 megawatts (MW), according to research by scientists at the Environmental Energy Technologies Division.

Quick and Easy Web-Based Assessment Tool for Day/Electric Lighting

To help architects, engineers, lighting designers, and consultants meet or exceed increasingly stringent Title 24 (California's building energy-efficiency standard) requirements, Southern California Edison and other California utilities have been developing tools for the Savings by Design program. This program aids building managers, who often lack an easy and quick means of assessing daylighting and electric lighting performance. When lighting decisions are made, key parameters that impact energy use and affect the quality of the luminous environment need to be taken into consideration. These factors include window size and orientation, glazing type, luminaire types and layout, and reflectance of interior surfaces, among others.

Berkeley Lab Model Tracks Indoor Anthrax Dispersal

Three fumigations spanning three months were needed to rid the Hart Senate Office Building of anthrax after a single contaminated letter was sent to Senator Tom Daschle last October. Although the epicenter of the $14 million cleanup was Daschle's office, the nine-story building was sealed after traces of anthrax were found in other rooms. No one knows precisely how the aerosolized spores drifted from the envelope to the far corners of the building, but Berkeley Lab researchers are zeroing in on an understanding.

Rating "Green" Laboratories—Labs21 Environmental Performance Criteria

Laboratory facilities present a unique challenge for energy efficient and sustainable design, with their inherent complexity of systems, health, and safety requirements, long-term flexibility and adaptability needs, energy use intensity, and environmental impacts. The typical laboratory is about three to five times as energy intensive as a typical office building and costs about three times as much per unit area. Any efforts to reduce energy use and environmental impact are heavily impacted by special functional and health and safety requirements, which need to be considered in the design and operation of laboratories.

Research Highlights

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