WCEC Releases 2025 Research Highlights

WCEC has released its 2025 Research Highlights, which showcase how the center is advancing energy-efficient heating, cooling, and ventilation technologies through applied research, field demonstrations, and collaboration with partners across industry, government, and academia.
WCEC Names Theresa Pistochini Associate Director

WCEC is pleased to announce the appointment of Theresa Pistochini as its Associate Director. Pistochini has more than 15 years of experience leading WCEC’s applied research in energy efficiency, HVAC, and indoor air quality.
Outcault Shares Research on Building Science in Switzerland

WCEC Market Transformation Research Program Director Sarah Outcault recently traveled to Lausanne, Switzerland, to participate in two major international events on the future of sustainable buildings.
WCEC Team Tests Real-World Performance of Low-GWP Heat Pumps

A new WCEC report explores affordable strategies to accelerate adoption of low-global-warming-potential (low-GWP) heat pumps in California homes.
WCEC Represents in DC for ARPA-E

WCEC researchers recently returned from the 2025 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit in Washington, D.C., where they presented a liquid cooling demonstration as part of the COOLERCHIPS program.
The Air We Breathe: UC Davis Experts Uncover Indoor Air Challenges

Indoor air quality has a direct impact on health, influencing everything from respiratory health to disease transmission. WCEC Co-Director of Engineering Theresa Pistochini is leading efforts to develop smarter HVAC systems that improve air quality in schools.
Slipping Through the Cracks: How Advances in Aerosol Sealing May Hold the Key to Greater Home Energy Efficiency

Research conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the Center for Energy and Environment, and the UC Davis Western Cooling Efficiency Center delves into the benefits of aerosol envelope sealing techniques for existing residential buildings.
WCEC Receives Best Paper Award from ASHRAE

Erfan Rasouli, Emily Fricke and Vinod Narayanan were recipients of the Science and Technology for the Built Environment Best Paper Award
WCEC Engineer Presents at the IEA Heat Pump Conference

WCEC presents at the IEA Heat Pump Conference on a Multi-function Heat Pump (MFHP) system that uses one outdoor unit to provide both domestic hot water (DHW) along with space cooling and heating.
New Published Paper by WCEC that Experimentally and Numerically Characterizes the Performance of a Novel Cooling and Heat Recovery System

In this study a M−cycle heat and mass exchanger was used as a heat recovery ventilator (HRV) to recover energy from the exhaust air stream during winter and as an IEC during summer to cool the ventilation air.