• The UI IDL is saying goodbye to its longtime research scientist, Dylan Agnes. Dylan was instrumental in maintaining UI-IDL’s lighting analysis tools and website, including a tool to enhance lighting code compliance (HELIOS), an interactive daylighting studio (LUMEN), and a suite of other climate analysis tools for early design at a site (CODEX). These browser-based design tools are all free and available to use on the lab’s website.
• The lab is working closely with a Boise building owner to guide a retrofit of single-paned windows in a historic 1969 office tower downtown. The lab determined that vacuum-insulated glass offered the highest energy savings by vastly improving the thermal performance of the building envelope. This product is estimated to reduce heating costs by 40% and cooling costs by 8%, while being thin enough to fit within the existing single-pane slots.

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• The MSU IDL is collaborating with HRV manufacturers to procure equipment for a forthcoming experimental study. With a focus on indoor air quality, thermal comfort, and energy consumption, the study will evaluate the performance of affordable HRV systems in residential buildings in cold, dry climates.
• Lab director Jaya Mukhopadhyay is co-presenting at AIA Montana on building performance through three interconnected themes: daylighting, energy, and lifecycle carbon. Using Montana-based projects as case study material, the presentation will demonstrate how integrated performance analysis supports better design decisions, enhances occupant comfort, reduces energy use, and minimizes whole-life carbon impacts.
• The lab is leading a collaborative research effort to conduct a study evaluating the viability of evaporative cooling systems in Montana using thermal and computational fluid dynamics modeling. The findings from this study will be presented at the 2026 Passive and Low-Energy Architecture (PLEA) Conference in Costa Rica.
• The lab is creating an advanced performance DOAS case study showcasing an academic building on the MSU-Bozeman campus. The study will include input from facility managers, occupants, and building designers, with a focus on design process, energy efficiency, and IAQ.

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• The UO IDL’s lighting simulation team has developed a digital workflow that calculates hourly photosynthetic photon flex density (PPFD) over a planar analysis area (horizontal or vertical). PPFD, expressed as micromoles per square meter per second, is a metric that can be used to measure the amount of usable, photosynthetically active light on a specific surface area. This tool gives us quantitative insight into the design and operation of indoor agriculture, particularly for optimizing electric horticultural lighting. The lab believes there are significant energy savings implications in this area, which also include mechanical ventilation and conditioning.
• The lab continues to support Oregon’s Building Codes Division in the improvement of building codes in our state. We are currently finalizing performance benchmarks for the proposed 2026 Oregon Residential Specialty Code (ORSC), as compared to previous code cycles and the 2024 International Energy Conservation Code. This work will be finished before the end of this summer. The 2026 ORSC is anticipated to take effect on October 1, 2026.
• The lab is working with the TallWood Design Institute to explore integration of various interior building systems (e.g., lighting, HVAC, plumbing, and acoustics) with prefabricated cross-laminated timber and mass plywood panels in modular housing construction. This effort is supported by students at the University of Oregon College of Design, whose work has been aggregated into a booklet available on the lab’s website.
• The lab’s Siobhan Rockcastle presented a session at AIA 2026 titled, Designing with Daylight: Innovation for Healthier Existing Buildings. This presentation covered a newly proposed annual metric to evaluate circadian health potential from daylight, as well as a comparison of predicted energy demand from spaces that incorporate daylight to meet health recommendations.

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• As part of the Seattle and Bellevue 2030 Districts’ Energy Week, UW IDL co-director Heather Burpee co-led a tour of the Metropole Project in Seattle’s Pioneer Square. The historic building is a leading example of energy-efficient adaptive reuse, transforming a National Register property into a high-performance community hub. Led by the Satterberg Foundation, the renovation combines advanced performance DOAS technology and other design strategies to achieve ambitious sustainability goals.
• The lab’s research engineer Teresa Moroseos and co-director Chris Meek are collaborating with Architecture 2030’s national leadership and AIA Seattle’s Committee on the Environment to evolve the criteria for the AIA Seattle Energy in Design Award. For the 2026 Awards, the committee is formulating a new rubric that includes top performing buildings based on EUI and typology from the entire submission cohort. The annual AIA Honor Awards event will be held in Autumn 2026, offering an opportunity for the lab to share perspectives on the evolving energy efficiency landscape.
• The lab’s co-directors and other collaborators created DARA (Decarbonization Analysis for Residential Architecture), a freely available energy and carbon dashboard tool for the design of small-scale residential buildings. This open-source tool enables designers to select key project attributes, such as location, envelope, structural design, window to-wall ratio, and HVAC system, and interactively calculate both embodied and operational carbon emissions.

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• WSU IDL director Julia Day received a $5,000 mini-grant to develop preliminary data and methods for a future NIH R21 proposal to examine how energy-related building strategies may affect indoor environmental quality and cognitive health. The project will investigate whether temperature-driven increases in indoor volatile organic compounds, shaped in part by ventilation, airtightness, and thermal management strategies, are associated with changes in cognitive performance, sleep, and stress.
• The lab is developing a podcast and case study focused on advanced performance HVAC in WSU’s Schweitzer Engineering Hall. The project brings together members of the building’s design and construction team to discuss how energy efficiency, HVAC/building systems integration, and operational performance were addressed throughout the project. The case study will explore lessons from the design, construction, and early operation of a high-performance campus building, while translating those lessons into accessible content for students, practitioners, and regional partners.
• As part of the International Energy Agency’s Energy in Buildings and Communities Programme Annex 95, Human-Centric Buildings for a Changing Climate, the lab continues to advance the Windrose framework for evaluating occupant-facing building controls and interfaces. The framework assesses whether interfaces are logical, durable, reliable, accessible, responsive, adjustable, and repairable, helping identify usability barriers that can prevent occupants from effectively operating energy-efficient building systems.

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