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Program Overview

People spend more than 80% of their time in buildings, therefore a good thermal comfort and quality of the indoor environment are essential for people’s wellbeing. At the same time, buildings and their energy systems are responsible for around 40% of the worldwide energy consumption and carbon emissions. In this program you will learn how to design energy efficient and more sustainable buildings whilst improving the thermal quality of their indoor environment. This Program consists of four courses. In order to consider how to increase the energy efficiency of new and existing buildings, you will discover the energy needs and thermal behavior of buildings. You will learn to answer questions like: how does solar radiation impact the heating and cooling needs? Is there something like an optimal window size, or optimum insulation or orientation? What is the impact of ventilation on the energy needs? Why do architects sometimes design fully glazed atria oriented to the north? A building not...
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What you will learn

How to make estimations of buildings energy needs by applying the balance principle and using simple public meteorological data; to be able to make informed decisions on how to increase the energy efficiency of new and existing buildings. About the energy supply in buildings and possible combinations to increase efficiency with e.g., heat pumps, gas burners, cogeneration, solar, fuel-cells, geothermal and aquifer thermal storage. To design building energy systems be designed accounting for the mismatch between demand and supply in order to ensure low primary energy usage, low carbon emissions or even enable zero carbon buildings and building stocks. How to master a good indoor thermal comfort and how that closely relates to buildings’ energy systems, in order to size the energy and comfort equipment of the building, which is a must from costs point of view.
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Efficient HVAC Systems

About this course: In this course you will start by identifying the different steps a HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) engineers need to follow to come to a proper design while collaborating with the architect. You will then learn how to distribute heat and cold using air and water systems, what temperature levels to use in both and how that relates to the type of energy supply and to the thermal quality of the building construction. You will further deepen your knowledge on air handling units and how to humidify and dehumidify air when needed and what that does mean for the energy consumption. As ventilation systems are often responsible for local thermal discomfort, you will also discover how different distribution systems lead to different comfort experiences and different indoor air qualities and you will know which simple control techniques can be applied. Finally, you will study a modern complex system consisting of an aquifer thermal storage, heat pump, boiler, s...
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Comfort and Health in Buildings

About this course: Even in the well-accepted indoor temperature range of 20-24°C (68-75°F), people can experience thermal discomfort. Complaints about the indoor thermal environment are one of the major complaints building and facility managers have to deal with, and they spend a large amount of their time and money to solve them. People spend more than 80% of their time in buildings. Therefore,  a good thermal comfort and quality of the indoor environment are essential for their wellbeing, health and productivity. In this course you will learn how to ensure good indoor thermal comfort and air quality, and how these factors relate to building design and to buildings’ energy systems. Comfort complaints mean user dissatisfaction, which in turn means delays and resistance to accept technologies needed for low carbon emission buildings. So,  if you want to discover what to pay attention to in your energy designs, or in designing new concepts for sustainable buildings, this course ...
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Energy Supply Systems for Buildings

About this course: In this course, you will discover the supply side of buildings’ energy chain. The first step is to consider how to convert natural resources into the energy needed by buildings: what are the options to create heat, cold and electricity? You will learn about efficiency and use this concept to estimate building’s primary energy use and carbon emissions. This concept is widely used in many national and international policies and building regulations and is essential to counteract climate change. You will study the performances of single heating systems like electrical heating, gas, or renewables like biomass, solar boilers and geothermal heat, followed by single cooling systems like evaporative cooling and environmental cold. We will also examine the systems that concurrently produce heat and cold. Do you know for instance that a heat pump and a cooling machine are identical devices? You will learn about the basic working principles of heat pumps and how to make sure th...
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Energy Demand in Buildings

About this course: Building design strongly influences the quantity of heating, cooling and electricity needed during building operation. Therefore, a correct thermal design is essential to achieve low energy and low carbon buildings, with good indoor air quality. This course will enable you to understand the basic principles of the energy chain: demand, supply and distribution; and how they relate to design principles for sustainable and energy-efficient buildings. Second, you will discover what type of heat losses and gains take place in buildings’ operations. You will learn how to estimate these flows using simple meteorological data and construction properties. You will acquire knowledge on how to estimate heat transfer through construction, ventilation, solar radiation or caused by internal sources or heat storage in the construction. Third, you will learn to make estimates of buildings’ energy needs on an hourly basis by using simple static energy balances: how much energy comes ...
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Discover how to realize energy-efficient and comfortable buildings.

Courses in this program Energy Demand in Buildings Discover how building design and occupancy determines the energy demand in buildings and learn how to (re)design low energy buildings. View the course Energy Supply Systems for Buildings Discover how to convert natural resources into heat, cold and electricity, what the capabilities of renewable systems are, how to match energy supply with buildings’ energy demand, and what that means for energy efficiency and carbon emissions. View the course Comfort and Health in Buildings Learn how to realize thermally comfortable and healthy buildings and how energy technologies impact comfort. View the course Efficient HVAC Systems Learn how to decide on efficient combinations of energy conversion systems and how to distribute and control air and energy flows in buildings whilst minimizing carbon emissions and optimizing thermal comfort in close consideration with the architect. View the course Job Outlook Many countries aim to build and renovate ...
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