This course prepares students to gain fundamental knowledge and an understanding of methods and computational tools used in predicting and determining energy use of whole buildings and important subsystems.
Lessons in this course
1. Intro to Heating and Cooling Loads: Part 1
The purpose of this lesson is to intoduce students to heating and cooling load calculations for buildings.
2. Intro to Heating and Cooling Loads: Part 2
The purpose of this lesson is to intoduce students to heating and cooling load calculations for buildings.
3. Introduction to Conduction Heat Transfer in Building Construction Assembly, Part 1
The purpose of this lesson is to observe the role of heat conduction in building construction assembly
4. Introduction to Conduction Heat Transfer in Building Construction Assembly, Part 2
The purpose of this lesson is to apply heat conduction theory in building energy modeling
5. Introduction to Convection Heat Transfer in Buildings
The purpose of this lesson is to observe the role of heat convection in buildings
6. Introduction to Radiation Heat Transfer in Buildings, Part 1
The purpose of this lesson is to observe the role of heat radiation in buildings
7. Introduction to Radiation Heat Transfer in Buildings, Part 2
The purpose of this lesson is to observe the role of sky heat radiation in buildings
8. Heat Balance on Building Walls
The purpose of this lesson is to observe entire heat balance on building opaque surfaces
9. Fenestration
The purpose of this lesson is to introduce the concept of fenestration, and to explore factors that impact window’s thermal and optical performance through a series of lectures and exercises.
10. Internal Heat Gains & Thermal Comfort, Part 1
The purpose of this lesson is to introduce the concept of internal heat gains, and to explore the impact of occupancy, lighting and electric equipment on building’s energy and thermal comfort performance through a series of lectures and exercise
11. Internal Heat Gains & Thermal Comfort, Part 2
The purpose of this lesson is to introduce the concept of internal heat gains, and to explore the impact of occupancy, lighting and electric equipment on building’s energy and thermal comfort performance through a series of lectures and exercise
12. Internal Heat Gains & Thermal Comfort, Part 3
The purpose of this lesson is to introduce the concept of internal heat gains, and to explore the impact of occupancy, lighting and electric equipment on building’s energy and thermal comfort performance through a series of lectures and exercise
13. Infiltration, Ventilation and Sizing, Part 1
The purpose of this lesson is to introduce the concept of infiltration, ventilation and equipment sizing in buildings, and how to model these aspects in a building energy modeling software
14. Infiltration, Ventilation and Sizing, Part 2
The purpose of this lesson is to introduce the concept of infiltration, ventilation and equipment sizing in buildings, and how to model these aspects in a building energy modeling software
15. Introduction to Thermal Zoning, Part 1
The purpose of this lesson is to observe the role of thermal zoning/blocking in buildings
16. Introduction to Thermal Zoning, Part 2
The purpose of this lesson is to observe the role of thermal zoning/blocking in buildings
17. Intro to Air Systems and Detailed System Outputs, Part 1
The purpose of this lesson is to explore the model of a typical VAV system and detailed reporting capabilities of EnergyPlus.
18. Intro to Air Systems and Detailed System Outputs, Part 2
The purpose of this lesson is to explore the model of a typical VAV system and detailed reporting capabilities of EnergyPlus.
19. Intro to Chiller Models
This lesson introduces the set of equations commonly use to model chillers in whole-building energy simulation software.
20. Variable Speed Cooling Towers
The purpose of this lesson is to explore the models and performance of variable speed cooling towers.
21. Simulating Dynamic System Response
The purpose of this lesson is to explore the dynamic response of several thermal zones with differing external envelope constructions.
Contributors
Greg Pavlak
Penn State
Smart building systems, building-to-grid integration, distributed and renewable energy
Amin Sepehri
Penn State
Amin Sepehri is a doctoral candidate at the Pennsylvania State University. His research is at the intersection of grid interactive buildings, heat transfer, HVAC, and thermal storage.
Lily X. Li
Penn State
Lily Li i is a doctoral candidate at the Pennsylvania State University. Her research is at the intersection of model predictive control, grid interactive buildings, demand response, and thermal storage.
License for materials in this course
Copyright Greg Pavlak and Amin Sepehri and Lily X. Li 2022 to 2023
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
