Tianzhen Hong

Tianzhen Hong

Interim Deputy for Research: Building Technology & Urban Systems Division
Computational Senior Scientist/Engineer
510-926-9702

Bio

Dr. Tianzhen Hong is a Senior Scientist leading research on technologies, data, methods, computing, occupant behavior, and policy for design and operation of low energy buildings and sustainable urban systems. He is leading the EnergyPlus development at LBNL. He established and chairs the ASHRAE Technical Committee 7.10 Occupant behavior in building design and operation. He actively contributed to international collaborations such as the 10-year U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center on Building Energy Efficiency, IEA EBC Annex 53, 66, 79, and 81. He was co-Operating Agent of Annex 66 and co-lead of Subtask 3 of Annex 79. He led the development of two building energy software: CBES and CityBES winning an R&D 100 Award in 2019 and 2022, respectively. He is an IBPSA Fellow, an ASHRAE Fellow, and a Highly Cited Researcher since 2021. He received B.Eng. and Ph.D. in HVACR, and B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics from Tsinghua University, China.

Links

Urban Systems Research

Urban Systems Group, UrbanSystems.lbl.gov 

City Buildings, Energy, and Sustainability (CityBES), CityBES.lbl.gov

Occupant Behavior Research

LBNL, behavior.lbl.gov

Occupancy Simulator, occupancysimulator.lbl.gov

IEA EBC Annex 79 (2018-2023): Occupant-centric building design and operation

IEA EBC Annex 66 (2013-2018): Definition and simulation of occupant behavior in buildings

IEA EBC Annex 53 (2008-2013): Total Energy Use in Buildings: Analysis & Evaluation Methods

ASHRAE Technical Committee 7.10 Occupant Behavior in Building Design and Operation

Building Energy Modeling and Analysis Tools

Commercial Building Energy Saver: California version, cbes.lbl.gov; National version, cbespro.lbl.gov

EnergyPlus, energyplus.net

Publications

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=x5m2zBYAAAAJ&hl=en

 

Education

Building Performance Simulation, PhD, Tsinghua University, 1994
HVACR Engineering and Technologies, B.Eng. Tsinghua University, 1991
Applied Mathematics, B.Sc. Tsinghua University, 1991

Awards

Spot: Erin Harbin, Tianzhen Hong, Joshua Kace, Kaiyu Sun, Peter Therkelsen -  May 17th 2023

For outstanding planning and execution of the 2023 BTUS Strategic Retreat

2022 R&D 100 Award: City Buildings, Energy, and Sustainability (CityBES) Web Tool for Climate Change Strategies -  August 22nd 2022

Buildings generate 39% of global CO2 emissions, but evaluating and prioritizing cost-effective technical solutions for individual buildings at city scale poses a significant challenge for city stakeholders. CityBES is a free, powerful modeling and analysis tool that enables quick and quantitative assessments of actionable recommendations for decarbonizing buildings and improving their thermal resilience against extreme weather at the urban scale. CityBES builds upon open city datasets, international data standards, the powerful EnergyPlus simulation engine, a library of mitigation and adaptation measures, and 3D-GIS visualization to inform decision making on city buildings, energy, and sustainability.

eta.lbl.gov/news/rd-100-awards-honor-lab-innovations

2019 R&D 100 Award: Commercial Building Energy Saver -  October 30th 2019

The Commercial Building Energy Saver (CBES), a software toolkit that enables equitable access to building deep retrofit and zero-net energy strategies for these buildings, won a 2019 R&D 100 Award in the software/services category.

The development team includes Berkeley Lab researchers Sang Hoon Lee, Xuan Luo, Kaiyu Sun, Tianzhen Hong, Cynthia Regnier, Mary Ann Piette (all pictured left to right), Yixing Chen, Rongpeng Zhang, Sarah C. Taylor-Lange, and Philip Price. The project was supported by the California Energy Commission and the Department of Energy.

Journal and Editorial Board Memberships

Energy and Buildings (2016 to present), Editor
Applied Energy (2017 to present); Building and Environment (2014-2019); Building Simulation (2013 to present); Advances in Applied Energy (2022-), Buildings and Cities (2022-)., Editorial Board

Publications

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

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