Building Systems Engineering

Hot summer days can mean high electricity bills. People want to stay comfortable without wasting energy and money. Maybe your household has fought over the best strategy for cooling your space. Which is more efficient: running the air conditioning all summer long without break, or turning it off during the...

The Carbon Leadership Forum has published a new report on the potential for meaningful climate impact through materials that serve as carbon sinks. Co-authored by Wil Srubar, an associate professor in the...

A major research center for sustainable building technology has been founded at the University of Colorado Boulder. The Building Energy Smart Technologies (BEST) Center is a new, five-year multi-university initiative funded by the National Science Foundation to advance sustainable building projects ranging from HVAC manufacturing, to smart glazing for windows,...

Associate Professor Wangda Zuo has been elected a fellow of the International Building Performance Simulation Association. IBPSA is a non-profit international society of building performance simulation researchers, developers and practitioners dedicated to improving the built environment. Zuo is a leading researcher in building system modeling and indoor environmental modeling. He...

Researchers at CU Boulder are part of a newly published study that finds that low-rise, high-density environments like those found in Paris are the optimal urban form when looking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over their whole life cycle. The work, recently published in npj Urban Sustainability , builds on...

Researchers at CU Boulder are working with colleagues in Ireland to help policymakers and other stakeholders reduce residential energy consumption and the related greenhouse gas emissions that come from it. The project ultimetly aims to provide leaders with the data-driven tools needed to make decisions about retrofitting residential energy solutions...

Gregor Henze is expanding renewable energy research Down Under. A University of Colorado Boulder professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, Henze is a 2021 honoree of the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Science, Technology and Innovation. Through the initiative, Henze will spend a semester in Newcastle, Australia...

Every day – multiple times a day – power grid operators make a complex calculation to solve a supply and demand problem. They must quickly decide how much energy their systems need to produce to accommodate the demand from their users at that moment. On average, these calculations take about...

Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder are exploring how widespread use of electric vehicles in the future may impact vulnerable communities. The work is funded by a new seed grant from the Resilient Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity Interdisciplinary Research Theme and is led by Assistant Professor Kyri Baker...

On Feb. 13, a severe winter storm swept across Texas and nearby southern states, bringing sub-zero temperatures and snowfall as far south as the border with Mexico. The polar air that descended on Texas lasted many days, leading to a statewide crisis as energy grids failed to supply enough power, fuels froze and water pipes burst.