In an April seminar hosted by the MIT Energy Initiative, Dr. Gail Brager, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, discussed her views that too many buildings harm the planet without properly serving their occupants. Buildings contribute roughly 40% of the total US greenhouse gas emissions, and 80% of their energy use is for heating, cooling, ventilating, and lighting. Yet research shows there are still high levels of occupant dissatisfaction with indoor environmental quality, and this can have profound impacts on people’s health, comfort, performance, and overall well-being. Using a range of research examples, Professor Brager’s presentation described new ways of studying, designing, and operating buildings to improve both energy and comfort performance, which must be simultaneous goals of a high-performance building.
This talk was presented on April 5, 2017 as part of the MITEI Seminar Series.
About the speaker:
Gail Brager is a professor in the Building Science Program of the Department of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, and the associate director of the Center for the Built Environment, an industry/university collaborative research center with more than 40 industry partners from various sectors of the building industry. She has a PhD in mechanical engineering and over 30 years of experience in teaching and research addressing the design, operation, and assessment of buildings to simultaneously minimize energy consumption while enhancing indoor environmental quality. She has particular interests in thermal comfort and adaptation, natural ventilation and mixed-mode buildings, and personalized comfort systems.
Post time: Jun-29-2017