Dr. Wanyu (Rengie) Chan is a Research Scientist and Deputy Indoor Environment Group Leader in Energy Analysis and Environmental Impact Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Her work focus on characterizing indoor air quality and implications to human exposures in residential and commercial buildings. She led a recently completed field study to evaluate the role of mechanical ventilation on indoor air quality in 70+ new California homes. The project was funded by California Energy Commission (CEC), involving multiple collaborators including two California’s Investor Owned Utilities. Dr. Chan is part of an ongoing project funded by Department of Energy, Building America Program to study indoor air quality in new homes across different U.S. regions. Dr. Chan has ongoing research studying indoor air quality and ventilation in California classrooms, working in collaboration with UC Davis Western Cooling Efficiency Center. She was the co-PI of Healthy Zero Energy Buildings project that aimed to inform commercial building ventilation standards, balancing energy efficiency objectives and the need to maintain acceptable indoor air quality. Dr. Chan joined the Laboratory as a graduate student and worked on the evaluation of shelter-in-place effectiveness. She collaborated with the National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center to develop an operational indoor model that has been applied in advising emergency responders on protecting buildings against accidental or intentional chemical or biological releases. Dr. Chan earned her Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from University of California, Berkeley in 2006.
Rengie Chan
Awards
May 2018
Energy Technologies Area
May 2004
Ashok Gadgil, Phil Price, Tracy Thatcher, Michael Sohn, David Lorenzetti, Rengie Chan, Emily Wood, Woody Delp, Richard Sextro, Elizabeth Finlayson, Buvaneswari Jayaraman, Sheng-Chieh Chang, Suengbae Hong, and Sondra Jarvis
Publications
2021
2020
"Factors Impacting Range Hood Use in California Houses and Low-Income Apartments." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17 (2020). .
"Association of Residential Energy Efficiency Retrofits with Indoor Environmental Quality, Comfort, and Health: A Review of Empirical Data." Building and Environment (2020). .
"Indoor Air Quality in California Homes with Code-Required Mechanical Ventilation." Indoor Air (2020). .
"Ventilation rates in California classrooms: Why many recent HVAC retrofits are not delivering sufficient ventilation." Building and Environment 167.January 2020 (2020). .
2019
"Does Dampness and Mold in Schools affect Health? Results of a Meta-Analysis." Indoor Air 2019 (2019). .
2018
"An Estimate of Natural Gas Methane Emissions from California Homes." Environmental Science & Technology (2018). .
2017
Small and Medium Building Efficiency Toolkit and Community Demonstration Program. 2017. LBNL-2001054. .
"Assessing Occupant and Outdoor Air Impacts on Indoor Air Quality in New California Homes." AIVC Conference. 2017. .
2016
Healthy Efficient New Gas Homes (HENGH) Field Study Protocol. 2016. LBNL-1005819. .
"Health benefits and costs of filtration interventions that reduce indoor exposure to PM2.5 during wildfires." Indoor Air 27.1 (2016) 191 - 204. .
Healthy Efficient New Gas Homes (HENGH) Pilot Test Results. 2016. LBNL-1005818. .
2015
"Cooking-related PM2.5 and acrolein measured in grocery stores and comparison with other retail types." Indoor Air 26.3 (2015) 489-500. .
"Green, Clean, & Mean: Pushing the Energy Envelope in Tech Industry Buildings." 2015. LBNL-1005070E. .