All types of snazzy technologies are available these days to make buildings greener: automated shades, electrochromic windows that know when to tint, intelligent lighting controls and smart cooling and heating systems, to name just a few. But how do these components work with each other and with building occupants? What happens when more than one technology is installed in a building? Do the current generation of building energy simulation programs provide accurate predictors of actual energy performance? Unfortunately, these questions are rarely answered because field-testing of integrated building technologies has not been a focus of the building industry.

Enter the new User Test Bed Facility at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Like a giant, life-size set of building blocks, the facility will allow researchers and manufacturers to test buildings systems and components under “real-world” conditions by swapping out systems and changing configurations, and then allow rigorous monitoring of performance of every key building element that affects energy consumption.

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