HVAC
Introduction
AEA delivers and licenses a course on heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC). It is suitable for in-class and online delivery as an undergraduate, graduate or professional development course (further explained below).
This is an applied course that focuses on how HVAC systems work and how they can be made more energy-efficient. The logical stepwise approaches to analysing HVAC systems are illustrated with many detailed examples.
The course developer, Thomas Simko, PhD, MIEAust, CPEng, has taught this subject at the undergraduate and graduate levels as well as through a professional development course. He has received ten university teaching awards.
No prerequisite is required. Although some background in thermodynanics could be helpful, all of the necessary basic concepts are introduced at the start of the course. This course has been delivered to mechanical and civil engineers and architects.
Topics
The available topics are listed below. We will customise the course according to the needs and interests of your organisation.
| Thermodynamics Background | Enthalpy, temperature-volume diagrams and units |
| Air Conditioning Systems | All-air, air-water and all-water systems |
| Psychrometrics | Fundamentals and the psychrometric chart |
| Basic Air Conditioning | Humidification and dehumidification |
| Advanced Air Conditioning | Mixed air streams, sensible heat factor, realistic applications |
| Indoor Air Quality | Comfort, contaminants, contaminant control |
| Heat Transfer Modes | Conduction, convection and radiation |
| Heat Transfer in Buildings | Walls, ceilings, windows, doors, slabs and basements |
| Infiltration & Exfiltration | Crack method, wind pressure and stack pressure |
| Heating Load | Heat conduction and infiltration loads & calculation of the heating load |
| Cooling Load | Concepts including thermal mass, conduction through walls and windows, solar heat gain, internal gains, infiltration, delays in heat flows becoming part of the load, and the radiant time series method |
| Solar Energy | The solar spectrum and solar heat gain calculations |
| Advanced HVAC Systems | Heat recovery systems and dedicated outdoor air systems |
Course Delivery
Without any modification, this course can be delivered to university students in a traditional in-class format or as an online course. The clear explanations and detailed examples of the lecture slides facilitate at-home online learning. The course is so comprehensive it can effectively teach itself.
The clarity of the curriculum together with no required background also makes this an ideal professional development course. Without modification, it can be delivered to professionals in-class or online. Recognising that universities are moving into this lucrative and growing field of education, we would like to highlight this additional opportunity for academic clients.
Benefits for Universities
| Revenue Opportunities | This is a versatile multi-use course that offers your department multiple revenue streams (undergraduate, graduate and professional development). |
| Awarded Faculty | Developed by an award-winning university instructor, this is a high-quality course which, if well-presented, can result in outstanding student satisfaction and award opportunities for your faculty. |
| Low Maintenance | The comprehensive slides present clear explanations and many detailed examples laid out in logical steps. Instructors can therefore expect fewer emails and requests for after class help. |
| Sub-contractible | That same comprehensive nature makes this an easy course to turn over to someone with a limited background in the field (e.g., a graduate student) for short periods or subcontracted for a term. |
Benefits for Professional Development Students
| Savings on operating costs | Designers and operators will be better able to identify the energy and cost savings of various improvements to HVAC systems. |
| Savings on capital costs | Personnel choosing new systems will be better informed about the many options available. |
| Expanded market | Consultants will be able to offer new cost-saving expertise to clients. |
Deliverables
| Personal delivery | 3 or 4 days of instruction, slides created with Powerpoint(R) |
| Slides in hardcopy | Bound printouts of the slides |
| Summaries | Summary sheets for the equations and symbols |
| Follow-up | The instructor will remain available to answer questions by email. |
The graduate version of this course comes with more challenging assignment and exam questions as well as a project (a building energy audit). With separate evaluative materials, this course can be offered concurrently to undergraduate and graduate students.
This course comes with an optional project: an energy use simulation of a large building with a freely available software package.
Permission has been obtained to use the fluid properties in this course.
The following textbook has been adopted for this course and is a required purchase for students:
McQuiston, F., Parker, J, Spitler, J. Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning, 6th Ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005.
Contact
Please contact us to discuss how we can customise and schedule this course to meet the needs of your company.