• Dreamboat Design for Test Bed: Imagine a life-size test bed for building technology, where walls, windows, skylights, roofs, lighting and systems for heating, ventilation and air conditioning could be swapped out. Now imagine four of them, each with the ability to be split in two to create a controlled environment. On top of that, one of the test beds would be designed to rotate 270 degrees to vary its exposure to the sun.

That's what scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory envision for their User Test Bed Facility, a $15.9 million project to advance ultra energy efficient buildings. Funded with Recovery Act money, construction is expected to begin in spring 2012 with completion scheduled a year later.

"Think of these test beds as kind of an Erector set,"  Berkeley Lab engineer Oren Schetrit, a program manager for the Test Bed Facility, told the lab's Julie Chao. "They're designed with extreme flexibility in mind."

Renderings of the facility are at the top of the page and to the right.

• GSA Sued Over EPA HQ in Kansas: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been heaped with criticism for planning to relocate its Region 7 headquarters from urban and easily reachable Kansas City, Kansas, to the town of Lenexa, 20 miles away. Kaid Benfield of the Natural Resources Defense Council called the area "one of the worst examples of suburban sprawl it (the EPA) could have possibly found."

Now the consolidated government of Kansas City and Wyandotte County, where K.C. is the county seat, is suing the General Services Administration over the EPA's planned move to an office park (once home to Applebee's headquarters) after the agency's lease in downtown Kansas City expires in June 2012. The lawsuit, filed this week, accuses the GSA of violating presidential executive orders that require facilities to be sustainable and located in urban cores.

Attorney Shari Shapiro examines the lawsuit in her Green Building Law blog. "I would argue (and the complaint alludes to it as well) that the Lenexa decision does not hold up on a purely economic basis, let alone an environmental one," Shapiro wrote. "The new site is located outside of the central business district, and has little access to transit. This means that every time an EPA employee has to go to a meeting, the courthouse and to other businesses in the course of their official duties, they must do so by car."

• Another $40 Lightbulb from Philips: Philips' LED replacement for the 75-watt incandescent bulb, a model the company calls the AmbientLED 17-watt, joins the company's LED replacement for a traditional 60-watt bulb on the market. GreenBiz.com Senior Writer Marc Gunther noted the release of the company's AmbientLED 12.5-watt bulb in February.

Both the 17-watt and 12.5 watt AmbientLEDs are Energy Star rated and sell for $39.97 apiece. Philips says the 17-watt bulb uses 80 percent less energy than a standard 75-watt bulb, lasts 25 times longer, and can save $160 in electricity costs during its lifetime. The bulb, pictured above, is available at thehomedepot.com.

• More Steps Toward a Smarter Grid: Honeywell's Utility PRO thermostat tethered with energy services software and communications technology called Yukon from Cooper Power Systems have earned certification under the ZigBee Smart Energy version 1.1 -- a standard for open communication among smart grid energy management products. ZigBee is a global wireless language that enables different devices to "talk" to each other. Such communication is an essential factor in visions of a connected world of energy, buildings, vehicle and information technology -- an intersection that GreenBiz Group calls VERGE.

The Honeywell thermostat and the Cooper Power Systems technology make up a demand response system that allows residents to take greater advantage of smart meter setups with their utility. Through demand response, customers can help reduce the load on the grid and save money by easing their draw on power during peak periods. The products from the two companies enable customers to participate in demand response arrangements, program when they'll do so, and receive near real-time information about energy use and billing. The news from Honeywell and Cooper Industries came yesterday as the ZigBee Alliance announced the release of version 1.1 of its advanced metering infrastructure standard and the certification of several products under the updated criteria.