Jonathan Woolley studies energy efficient mechanical systems for buildings. Most broadly, his research encompasses hybrid solutions that integrate various system types to facilitate comfortable and healthy indoor environments with minimal energy consumption.  Jonathan advances climate appropriate strategies that embrace the unique needs and opportunites associated with local environmental condiitions. He has conducted research on passive solar design, natural ventilation, radiant cooling and heating, indirect evaporative cooling, advanced heat pump systems, heat recovery, occupancy based learning thermostat controls, and many other energy efficiency strategies.

Jonathan Woolley is a PhD student in Architecture at UC Berkeley. He earned a M.S. in mechanical and aeronautical engineering from UC Davis in 2008. Since 2004, Jonathan has been involved in a wide variety of research surrounding energy efficiency in buildings. He has specialized in the design, commissioning, demonstration, monitoring and evaluation of climate appropriate hybrid cooling systems. Other aspects of his research have included design of zero net energy homes, ground coupled heat pump systems, heat recovery, and advanced building ventilation strategies. Jonathan has developed new open source modeling tools for hybrid air conditioners, and holds the patent on a tracer gas airflow measurement system developed at UC Davis. At Berkeley, Jonathan is focused on the energy and comfort implications of radiant cooling strategies.  In particular he is focused on performance optimization for radiant buildings throug design and control of natural ventilation systems, hybrid supplemental air cooling systems, low energy chilled water plants, and heat recovery. Beyond advancing state of the art technical solutions, Jonathan’s work embraces behavioral, economic, and policy opportunities as integral aspects of a pathway to sustainability in the built environment.

M. Pritoni, J.M. Woolley, M.P. Modera, Do occupancy-responsive learning thermostats save energy? A field study in university residence halls, Energy and Buildings. 127 (2016) 469–478. doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.05.024.

J.M. Woolley, C. Harrington, M.P. Modera, Swimming pools as heat sinks for air conditioners: Model design and experimental validation for natural thermal behavior of the pool, Building and Environment. 46 (2011) 187–195. doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2010.07.014.

J.M. Woolley, Advancing Development of Hybrid Rooftop Packaged Air Conditioners: Test Protocol and Performance Criteria for the Western Cooling Challenge, in: ASHRAE Transactions, 2011.

J. Woolley, Outside of the Box - Climate Appropriate Hybrid Air Conditioning as a Paradigm Shift for Commercial Rooftop Packaged Units, in: Proceedings of the 2016 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, Asilomar, CA, 2016. http://aceee.org/files/proceedings/2014/data/papers/3-490.pdf.

Modera, M.P. Woolley, J.M. Dakin, B. Koenig, M. One Machine for Heating, Cooling, and Domestic Hot Water: Multi-Function Heat Pumps to Enable Zero Net Energy Homes. Proceedings: ACEEE 2014 Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings. Pacific Grove, California. August 2014.

Outcault, S. Kutzleb, J. Woolley, J. Heinemeier, K. Market Barriers to Widespread Diffusion of Climate-Appropriate HVAC Retrofit Technologies. Western Cooling Efficiency Center.  Southern California Edison.  ET14SCE7060. February 2015.

Paliaga, G., Farahmand, F., Raftery, P., Woolley, J. TABS Radiant Cooling Design & Control in North America: Results from Expert Interviews. June 2017. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/0w62k5pq