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Sustainable Building Energy Lab
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A lab that works to reduce building energy use, looking at everything from cities to human behavior.
AboutAbout the lab
Building energy, from cities to human behavior.
The Sustainable Building Energy Lab conducts research on reducing the energy consumed in buildings.
The building sector accounts for one third of society's total energy consumption, so cutting it is an important theme for achieving a decarbonized society.
In its urban-scale research, the lab forecasts the future energy consumption of buildings and, by combining supply equipment such as solar power generation, storage batteries, and hydrogen fuel cells, sketches a vision of future urban energy.
In its research on human behavior, the lab conducts repeated experiments to verify how information delivered through smartphone apps and IoT tools can steer people's behavior toward energy saving.
Key terms
- ZEB
- Net Zero Energy Building. A building that reduces the energy it uses and offsets the rest with energy it generates, bringing its net consumption close to zero
- Demand response
- A mechanism that shifts the times when electricity is used, adjusting the balance of power supply and demand from the demand side
- BI-Tech
- A method that combines knowledge from behavioral science with technology to encourage people to adopt energy-saving behavior naturally
NewsLab news
A paper on the development of a low-cost IoT device for measuring perceived temperature and predicting air conditioner power consumption was published in E3S Web of Conferences
Prof. Sumiyoshi contributed a chapter to the book Miru, Tsukau, Manabu: Kankyo Kenchiku no Atarashii Choryu (New Trends in Environmental Architecture: See, Use, Learn; Gihodo Shuppan)
A paper investigating the role of sunrooms in rural houses on the Tibetan Plateau was published in Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering
A paper organizing behavior change theories for promoting energy-saving behavior was published in Toshi Seisaku Kenkyu (Urban Policy Research)
A paper analyzing the relationship between environmental awareness and energy-saving behavior in offices using the theory of planned behavior was published in Journal of Environmental Engineering (Transactions of AIJ)
ResearchResearch themes
Toward a decarbonized society, the lab covers everything from optimizing urban-scale energy systems to evaluating the actual performance of ZEBs, designing data centers, and changing human behavior. Centered on field measurements and simulation, it uses AI, IoT, human flow data, and urban energy data, and also works on demand response, which shifts the times when electricity is used by means such as thermal storage tanks.
*Illustrative imageThe Future of Urban Energy
The aim is to clarify the future of sustainable energy policy and systems in cities. Using geographic information system (GIS) data, the lab develops planning methods that optimize energy supply and demand at the urban scale, and is improving them so that they can handle nationwide-scale calculations.
*Illustrative imageMeasuring the Reality of ZEB Buildings
The lab clarifies how ZEBs actually consume energy and identifies problems in design-stage evaluation methods. By analyzing measured data from hospitals and government buildings, it sorts out the factors behind gaps between design-time evaluation and actual operating performance, and proposes improvements to evaluation indicators and design methods.
*Illustrative imageDesigning to Cool Data Centers
Demand for data centers and their energy consumption are rapidly increasing with the growth of generative AI. High-performance servers generate a great deal of heat, which calls for new design responses in the building envelope, air conditioning, and zoning. Covering insulation, solar shading, outdoor air use, liquid cooling, and heat recovery, the lab evaluates the optimal design strategy for each region through simulations that reflect weather data and operating conditions.
*Illustrative imageChanging Behavior to Save Energy
Saving energy requires not only introducing technology but also encouraging changes in human behavior. Using BI-Tech, which merges behavioral observation with technology, the lab builds systems for diagnosing energy-saving performance and for nudging, and is improving a smartphone app and developing a feedback mechanism based on diagnostic results.
MembersFaculty
Members of the Sustainable Building Energy Lab consist of faculty, academic researchers, technical staff, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, and research students.
- ProfessorDaisuke Sumiyoshi
VoicesStudent voices
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Reflection of Parque Cultural Paulista building in Avenida Paulista, Brazil” Wilfredor / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- The Future of Urban Energy: “Transmission towers at sunset in East Texas” Matthew T Rader / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Measuring the Reality of ZEB Buildings: “Snow-covered houses in Limoilou, Quebec City” Wilfredor / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Designing to Cool Data Centers: “Female African Elephant” Axel Tschentscher / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Changing Behavior to Save Energy: “Stepping stones across Millbrook stream in the Chelwood Vachery Forest Garden - geograph.org.uk - 5309360” Marathon / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (地域再生
デザイン学研究室): “The pedestrian street of Dionisiou Areopagitou on May 1, 2020” George E. Koronaios / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped) - Related lab (ハビタット工学研究室): “Diegem train station (DSCF6217)” Trougnouf / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (建築環境シミュレーション学研究室): “Outdoor thermal comfort” ENVI-met GmbH / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (健康建築環境学研究室): “Schlieren-color-candle-plume” Settles1 / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
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