Conditioning the built environment has a large influence on climate change and our health, well-being and productivity. Stefano Schiavon will discuss strategies to reduce those impacts when he presents the Durham School Distinguished Lecture, “The Future of Cooling,” Friday, Feb. 17 at 12:15 p.m.
Boxed lunches will be available at noon that day for those who completed RSVP form (link below). The lecture can be viewed in PKI 160 (Scott Campus), Nebraska Hall 175 (City Campus) or on Zoom. Use the form (link below) to RSVP for a boxed lunch or to receive the Zoom link, preferably by Wednesday, Feb. 15.
Schiavon is professor of architecture and civil and environmental engineering at the University of California Berkeley and associate director of the Center for Environmental Design Research. His research is focused on finding ways to reduce energy consumption in buildings while improving occupant health, well-being and productivity.
More about the lecture: We spend most of our time in built spaces that substantially affect our health, well-being, and productivity. Conditioning the built environment has a large influence on climate change, most of which comes from the energy used to create indoor comfort. The need for cooling has been increasing globally, with most of it happening in tropical countries because of their economic and demographic growth. How can we enhance occupant satisfaction without increasing buildings’ environmental impact even further?
Schiavon will present strategies to reduce the impact of air conditioning and show why electric fans can be both an alternative to and augmentation of air conditioning. In a remarkable number of ways, they have the potential to reduce energy use and increase thermal comfort simultaneously. He will also show that the PMV/PPD thermal comfort model has low prediction accuracy and we do not have enough evidence to justify narrow indoor temperature ranges for thermal comfort or work performance reasons. Schiavon will end the presentation by making a case for how electric fans in many situations can protect people during heatwaves.
More details at: https://engineering.unl.edu/durhamschool/durham-school-distinguished-lecture/