Thermal issues and climate change: Keeping Warm and Cool

Climate change is one of the most important issues of our time. The consequences of a changing climate have implications for local and global economies and human health and can exacerbate existing inequalities around the world. In order to nucleate and promote the big-picture approach to tackle the challenge, the NSF-sponsored Heating Up, Cooling Down: Thermal Issues in Climate Change series of bi-weekly discussion sessions took place online. The main goal was to bring together researchers from throughout the thermal community to find intersectional areas that need additional expertise to reach a level of better understanding.

Assis. Prof. Dolaana Khovalyg was invited to contribute to the topic of “Keeping Warm and Cool”with a focus on commercial, residential, etc. HVAC&R, climate control, and primary energy use and reduction. In her speed talk “Conditioning People, not Spaces”, she highlighted the necessity for targeted conditioning of people to reach not only ambitious energy reduction goals in cities but also shift towards the occupant-centric operation of buildings. By properly targeting body parts for personalized heating and cooling, the thermal sensation of people exposed to temperatures beyond thermoneutrality could be improved. The video recording of the session is available here.