energy

A model for measuring electricity savings and air quality improvements resulting from building code changes, developed by researchers at the Texas A&M Energy Systems Laboratory, was recently cited in a Harvard Law School Environmental Policy Initiative paper.

Cooler weather will soon greet the assortment of greenery atop building A of Texas A&M’s Langford Architecture Center as a research project begun in 2012 to learn what plants will thrive on green roofs and green walls in Texas’ often hostile climate continues.

Bill McKibben, who the Boston Globe called one of the United States’ most important environmentalists, visited Texas A&M to talk about the threat of global warming and the international movement to end humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels.

An innovative, energy saving lighting system that can pipe healthy, full-spectrum daylight more than 40 feet into a building and potentially raise worker productivity is being tested at the Texas A&M College of Architecture’s Daylighting Laboratory.

Expo City, the focal point of Expo 2017 in Astana, Kazakhstan, a world’s fair showcasing the latest developments in renewable energy sources, will be built from a design by a Chicago firm co-founded by Adrian Smith, an outstanding alumnus of Texas A&M’s College of Architecture.

After almost three decades spent finding energy saving solutions for commercial and residential buildings, Jeff Haberl, professor of architecture at Texas A&M, was recently elevated to a fellow in the International Building Performance Simulation Association.

Measures to reduce energy use in a high-profile Northgate mixed-use residential development were detailed in construction proposals prepared this spring by construction science students at Texas A&M.

After investigating home building practices common in Texas colonias, impoverished areas near the Mexico border, a Texas A&M architecture Ph.D. student is working to share affordable, energy efficient construction techniques and home designs with colonias residents.

The difference in energy consumption between two homes in Qatar — one built to a strict energy efficiency standard and the other using conventional construction — is being evaluated in a Texas A&M College of Architecture study.

Texans enjoyed lower home electric bills and cleaner air after state legislators in 2001 adopted new energy and construction codes for single-family residences, according to a report from scientists from the Texas A&M Energy Systems Laboratory.

A building energy use "tune-up" procedure developed by researchers at the Texas A&M Energy Systems Lab has so far yielded more than $100 million in energy savings from little more than 300 client buildings, said Charles Culp, professor of architecture and ESL associate director.

Significant energy savings could be realized in small homes in hot climates with an air conditioning system being researched by Simge Andolsun, a Ph.D. architecture student at Texas A&M, that cools rooms based on where people are at different times during the day.

An emphasis on interdisciplinary education has netted José Fernández-Solís, Texas A&M associate professor of construction science, the 2012 J. Thomas Regan Interdisciplinary Faculty Prize.

Steve McDowell, director of design and principal at BNIM, a design and planning firm recognized by the American Institute of Architects as its 2011 firm of the year, spoke at Texas A&M’s Rowlett Lecture Series April 19 at Rudder Theatre on the Texas A&M campus.

Disparities between the potential and actual energy use of four buildings in Qatar will be investigated by a research team led by John Bryant, an associate professor of construction science who also serves on the engineering faculty at Texas A&M University at Qatar.