Advanced systems for heating and cooling

HVAC systems must be energy- and resource-efficient, and resilient to be able to create the optimal indoor environment both today and in the future under different climate-change scenarios and events (e.g., heatwaves). This requires detailed knowledge on

• Fundamentals of heat and mass transfer within buildings and its effects on occupants

• Occupant-centred building design, and HVAC system design and operation

• Integration of natural resources into HVAC systems (i.e., renewables) such as solar energy, ground heat exchangers, and night radiative cooling

It is also crucially important to identify the current barriers and come up with solutions to ensure that our innovative research findings can be implemented in new buildings and in renovation of buildings.

Research efforts

We develop novel heating, cooling, and ventilation systems. These include building-attached, building-detached, and occupant-attached systems such as low temperature heating and high temperature cooling systems (e.g., water-based radiant heating and cooling systems, chilled beams, and active control of phase change materials (PCM)), Personalized Environmental Control Systems (PECS, such as personalized heating, cooling, ventilation, and lighting systems), and wearable heating and cooling devices.

We develop new design methods, and criteria to evaluate the performance of these systems using theoretical (thermodynamic) analyses, climate chamber measurements, human subject experiments, field measurements, and dynamic building simulations.

Cooperative partners

We have a close collaboration with universities, national and international HVAC system and component manufacturers, consulting (design) engineers, and would like to have more collaboration with architects.

Our collaborations are usually in form of common projects and also under the “International Centre for Indoor Environment and Energy”, which is a unique forum where we gather with different industry professionals three times a year and present our recent research results and trends, and have discussions with the industry to ensure that our research results are addressing the needs of the industry so that our findings can be implemented in buildings and create the maximum impact.

Use in practice

Our research results and findings are used by national and international HVAC system and component manufacturers, consulting (design) engineers, architects, and standardization bodies.