ETA 2021 Strategic Plan - Flipbook - Page 102
FLEXLAB®
Indoor Air Quality
and COVID
With more frequent
climate-driven extreme
events such as wildfires,
and new challenges
such as the COVID-19
pandemic, FLEXLAB’s
advanced HVAC systems
and flexible configuration
play a significant role in
investigating how building
controls, occupant
behavior, and air cleaning
technologies impact
occupant exposure to
airborne pathogens,
wildfire smoke, and
other harmful outdoor
air pollutants. During
the COVID-19 global
pandemic, FLEXLAB has
offered a unique testbed
environment to study
the drivers of airborne
transport and the fate
of SARS-CoV-2 in the
built environment. This
capability will continue
to be used to study the
relationships between
building energy efficiency,
indoor air quality, and
occupant health.
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Studying and Optimizing Integrated
Systems
Buildings use more than two-thirds of the electricity
consumed in the United States, and piecemeal
approaches to energy efficiency are not sufficient to
achieve large-scale energy reductions. To unlock deeper
levels of efficiency and optimize energy savings in
grid-integrated buildings, researchers developed the
first testbed in the world that can evaluate the energy
performance of major building systems and distributed
energy resources (DER) as an integrated system, under
real world conditions. FLEXLAB, the Facility for Low
Energy Experiments, enables architects, utility companies,
government agencies, manufacturers, builders, owners,
and others to take a whole-building systems approach
to uncover new ways to design buildings and integrate
systems for maximum performance. The U.S. DOE’s
Facility for Low Energy Experiments (FLEXLAB), at Berkeley
Lab, enables architects, utility companies, government
agencies, manufacturers, builders, owners, and others
to take a whole-building systems approach to uncover
new ways to design buildings and integrate systems for
maximum performance.
Based on Berkeley Lab’s 30 years of testbed experience,
this new large-scale testing facility allows users to test
building systems and DERs as integrated whole-building
systems or individually. Users can build out and equip any
of FLEXLAB’s one- and two-story testbeds to mimic a real
commercial or multifamily residential building, installing
everything from furniture and flooring to lighting,
shading, windows, building integrated photovoltaics, and
diverse heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC)
systems. FLEXLAB can be used to study water-based
heating and cooling, such as radiant floor systems, and
the facility also provides air-based heating, cooling, and a
state-of-the-art ventilation system.
