Raw Lecture Notes

Lecture 01

Your learning goals

  • Form groups of two or three and discuss the following

  • Why are you taking this class?

  • What are your learning goals for this class?

Learning Objectives

  • Understand how this class will function

  • Understand the larger context for thermal energy

Existing knowledge

  • What do you already know about thermal energy?

Interviews

  • What do you want to learn in this class?

  • What skills do you want to develop?

  • Why do you think these skills are important?

Lecture 02

Learning Objectives

  • Recognize key thermal energy concepts

  • Recognize how thermal energy use fits in global energy system

Thermal energy concepts

  • Temperature

  • Internal energy

  • Heat (transfer)

  • Heat capacity

  • Conduction

  • Convection

  • Radiation

  • Combustion

Energy conversion and efficiency

  • What primary energy sources do we use for heat?

  • How efficiently do we capture and move thermal energy?

Energy terms

  • End use: what the energy is used for at the instant of consumption

  • Primary energy: what is the original consumption in terms of

    energy

Activity

What do you already know about each of these thermal energy concepts?

Activity

  • What questions do you want to answer in this class?

Estimation Activity

  • How much air conditioning energy is used by American homes this year?

Activity

  • What phenomena cause some observable things in our lives?

Demonstrations

  • Calca

  • Sage Math Cloud

Bathtub model

  • Energy

  • Appliances

  • Building Stock

Lecture 03

Lecture 04

Lecture 05, Time Value of Money

Lecture 6, Time Value of Money

Lecture 7, Energy and Power and Heat

Lecture 8, Combustion

Learning Objectives

  • Calculate carbon emissions resulting from combustion and electricity

  • Calculate energy released by combustion

Concepts

  • Energy density

  • Carbon emissions

Activity

  • Predict what time the kettle will reach 100C

Prediction

delta_T = (100K - 20.8K) => 79.2 K
m_water = 750 gram
c_water = 4.186 J/gram/K
power = 1340 J/sec

m_water * c_water
* delta_T / power
* => 185.5585 sec

Lecture 9, Conduction

Lecture 10, Conduction

Lecture 14, Midterm Review

Topics

  • Units and conversions

  • Computational tools

  • Time value of money

  • Investment metrics

  • Energy and Power and Heat

  • Combustion

  • Conduction

  • Convection

Concepts

  • Heat Capacity

  • Conductive Heat Transfer

  • Time Value of Money

Lecture 15, Midterm

Lecture 18

Lecture 18, Thermodynamics

Deadlines

  • Load up coolers on afternoon of Tuesday Nov. 17th

Homework

  • Temperature conversion issues

  • Everyone can do 3.6 over for full credit

Questions

  • How much power does a refrigerator use?

  • Could you use a refrigerator to heat and cool your house?

  • What is the most mechanical work you can extract from heat energy?

  • What is the most heat energy you can extract with work?

Activity

  • Estimate the average power of the refrigerator in the ETC

Lecture 20, Monday 9 Nov 2015, Metrics

Heating Degree Days

  • How much energy will it take to heat the ETC this winter?

Lecture 21, Monday 16 Nov, HDD, TMY, CDD?

Sage Math Cloud

  • Markdown

    • Allows bold, lists, headings

  • LaTeX

    • Allows math and greek symbols

  • Code

    • Allows computations

Lecture 22, Wed 18 Nov, HDD, TMY, CDD

Weighing of Ice Cubes

Quiz 6

Lecture 23, Mon 23 Nov 2015, Economic Cost of Insulation

Announcements

Economic Cost of Insulation

  • How much insulation should we apply to a home?

Thought experiment

  • You have a small cabin in a cold area

  • You are insulating the walls with rigid insulation

  • How many layers should you apply?

Calculation

  • What is the area of the cabin?

  • What is the cost of insulation?

  • What does the insulation cost if you pay back over 10 years?

Calculation

  • What is the yearly heating need for the cabin?

  • How much does this energy cost each year?

Calculation

  • How does this combined cost vary with the number of sheets?

Lecture 24, Mon 30 Nov 2015, Conserved cost of Energy

Conserved Cost of Energy

The conserved cost of energy is cost of the equivalent purchase of energy to a conservation measure.

This allows us to compare this metric to the cost of energy.

CCE=annual extra investment costannual energy avoidedCCE = \frac{\textrm{annual extra investment cost}}{\textrm{annual energy avoided}}

The key to this is a clear definition of the two scenarios you are comparing. The cost is the difference in cost and the energy is the difference in energy between the two scenarios.

CCE

  • calculate for the additional sheets of insulation on our cabin

  • write up calculation better and put in course notes

  • fire up sage math cloud

Lecture 25, Projects, 2 Dec 2015

Lecture 26, Projects, 7 Dec 2015

Lecture 27, Review, 9 Dec 2015

Announcements

  • SETE evaluations

  • Power adapters for midterm

  • Sign up for teams

Cooler reports

  • Break report into sections

  • Outline and narrate your computations

Optional homework

  • Read How to Become a Straight-A Student, Cal Newport

  • Write a 1000-word essay on how you would change your study habits

Self-evaluation

  • What is the most important thing you learned in this class?

  • What are you able to do now that you weren't at the beginning?

  • What will you remember five years from now?

  • What behaviors were most beneficial for your learning?

  • Where could you improve on your habits?

  • What skills have you developed?

  • What skills would you still like to develop further?

Learning goals

  • Goal: you are able to teach yourself one of these topics 5 years from now

  • Goal: you can communicate your estimations to others

  • Calculation Example

Major Topics

  • Units

  • Investment metrics

  • Energy, Power, Heat

  • Combustion

  • Conduction, Convection, Radiation

  • Phase change

  • Thermodynamics

  • Heating degree days

  • Conserved cost of energy

Questions

PreviousEfficiency ElementsNextExamples

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