ME 4131W: Indoor Environment & Energy Laboratory
This course is a lab course designed in the general discipline of Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration (HVAC&R). The intent of this course is to introduce many of the concepts and skills an engineer in indoor environmental and energy engineering may encounter. Students will conduct an experiment in each lab module throughout the semester. The objectives of this course include:
- Develop a fundamental knowledge of indoor environmental engineering practices.
- Develop basic measurement techniques and uncertainty analysis.
- Improve and practice technical writing skills.
ME 5103: Thermal Environmental Engineering
Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration (HVAC&R) keep humans comfortable in built spaces. HVAC&R is essential for human life, health, and productivity year-round in hot or cold climates. However, HVAC&R technologies also have a major impact on energy use and energy efficiency in residential and commercial buildings. According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA), in 2020, electricity consumption for air conditioning accounted for about 19% (254 billion kilowatt hours [kWh]) of electricity consumption in U.S. homes. Hence, the overall impact of HVAC&R technologies on global energy consumption is tremendous and continues to grow.
The course will discuss vapor-compression refrigeration/heat pumping cycle and introduce important components of a cycle such as refrigerants, compressors, expansion devices, heat exchangers, and various system architectures and cycle improvements. Alternative refrigeration cycles for vapor-compression cycle (VCC) will also be introduced. You will also learn psychrometrics for air and the factors that affect human comfort and indoor air quality. Finally, you will learn to conduct analyses of heating and cooling needs in buildings and learn how to reduce both through exploiting energy efficiencies.
Acknowledgment: This course is modified from ME 401 Refrigeration and Cryogenics taught by Professor Stefan Elbel during my Ph.D. study at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and the original ME 5103 taught by Professor Uwe Kortshagen at the University of Minnesota. For this, I owe a debt of gratitude to Professor Elbel and Professor Kortshagen.