Syracuse University received a $3.2 million grant that will be used to develop a system that will control temperatures and improve comfort in the workplace.

The new personal heating and cooling system is also designed to save energy in the process, said H. Ezzat Khalifa, the leader of the project and department chair and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at SU. Khalifa is working with a team to develop this new system and he said he estimates that the prototype will be tested in laboratories in 2017. The system will be the first of its kind, he said.

The Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy, which has provided the $3.2 million funding for the project, has recently been focusing on the conservation of energy — especially within office buildings. The agency’s solution for rising greenhouse gas emissions produced by office buildings is to raise the temperature by about four degrees in the summer and lower it by the same amount in the winter, Khalifa said.

The agency is aware that this change could bring discomfort to office workers and the resulting unpleasantness could affect businesses. Therefore, SU has been tasked to use the grant in order to find a solution, hence Khalifa’s project. This system is intended to allow ARPA-E to widen the thermostat range while allowing individuals to sustain productivity and comfort, Khalifa said.

Chetna Chianese, one of the research fellows at the Syracuse Center of Excellence, spoke about the center’s commitment to saving energy as she was describing the project. One special aspect of the system being developed is its size.

“The unit will be about the size of a desktop computer,” Chianese said. This new technology will allow occupants to retain personal comfort while cutting the energy usage of the building as a whole, she said.

ARPA-E estimates that implementing these new changes could save more than 15 percent of the energy normally used for heating and cooling, according to the ARPA-E website.

The unit has many perks, like superior energy conservation characteristics and a compact size, said Khalifa. Khalifa added that the goal is for the unit to fit “unobtrusively underneath an office worker’s desk.”

He explained that the efficiency of the technology should allow for the unit to only use around 12 watts of power, which is around the same amount as an LED light bulb.

This project will allow buildings to increase its energy efficiency without sacrificing the comfort and therefore, the productivity of its employees, Khalifa said.

Published on January 28, 2015 at 12:01 am