Thermodynamic Systems & Methods for Buildings

Students construct and use physical prototypes to understand the design and performance of heat-pumps based on the vapor compression cycle and will explore their use in a variety of innovative building applications. The course uses a range of modeling tools to explore thermodynamic potentials of environmental sources, validating the models with test data from the prototypes.

Weekly exercises are complemented by technical references and case study examples. The final work of the class involves the design of a complete system integrated into a building, evaluating its performance for peak conditions and over a full year.