Before diving into electrification, it is imperative to exploit energy efficiency potential. In this module, you will analyze the performance of various low energy technology options, including heat and energy recovery, direct and indirect evaporative systems, airside and waterside economizers, and a variety of passive cooling strategies.

Heat pumps are widely regarded as the key to electrification of building energy systems. In this module, you will understand and apply heat pump technology for both residential and commercial appllications, including ground source systems, and learn about successful projects to convert fossil fuel heating to heat pumps in existing buildings.

It is increasingly recognized that buildings can play an active role in the transition to a low carbon economy. In this module, you will learn how buildings can be active participants in the electric grid. The opportunities include the use of thermal energy storage, smart building controls, and optimal scheduling in response to economic and carbon emission signals from the grid in both individual buildings and building portfolios.

The design of building energy systems is best learned by doing. In this module, we will develop a building energy system design for a building, drawing on material our previous course on Engineering Foundation for Building Energy Systems and Design of HVAC Distribution and Delivery Systems. The example building is being converted from an office building to a mixed use retail, office, and multifamily residential building. We will focus on the residential portion, designing a DOAS air distribution system to deliver ventilation and a pair of hot and cold water distribution systems to deliver heating and cooling through fan coil units in each apartment. We will select the fans, pumps, and coils to meet system requirements. We will also discuss the design considerations for primary system equipment to electrify and decarbonize the energy systems.

This final exam comprehensively tests your understanding of all five modules of this course through a set of conceptual and quantitative questions. Some of the conceptual questions will involve simple arithmetic calculations, while the quantitative questions will require some analysis of low-energy and heat pump equipment. Review the module analyses before you embark on the final exam.