Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Buildings account for approximately 29% of Canada's total energy consumption and 22% of greenhouse gas emissions, two-thirds of which are attributed to space heating and cooling demands. The use of passive thermal storage, primarily with building integrated phase change materials (PCMs), can reduce the energy required to meet these demands by 20-30%. Although this decrease is significant, much research is still required before these materials can be safely integrated into traditional assemblies. To address this gap, it is necessary to improve the available data for building surface temperatures, including the trends and spatial distribution of a room's surface temperature. To support this need for better data, Dr. Cruickshank, Director and PI of the Carleton University Centre for Advanced Building Envelope Research (CABER), has developed two full-scale fully instrumented test chambers, each measuring 3 m x 3 m x 3 m, with replaceable interior panels. The two chambers, currently under construction, are identical, allowing for comparative tests to be completed (e.g., typical construction materials in one and building integrated PCMs panels in the other). These tests chambers, however, are not currently equipped to monitor the spatial surface temperature distribution in the room in detail or real time. As these data are critical to advance the state of the art and support Dr. Cruickshank's NSERC Discovery research, she is requesting $76,310 through the NSERC RTI program to purchase two unique, custom designed surface temperature measurement systems, to be installed in each of the two test chambers within CABER. The systems, designed and supplied by Viper Imaging, each utilize a FLIR A70 camera with a 95° lens, attached to a pan and tilt system, allowing for a complete sweep of the entire space to be completed using a single camera, obtaining temperate readings for each 10 cm x 10 cm area of the test chamber. Coupled to the camera is a high accuracy IR thermometer, which will be used for continuous calibration of the IR camera, improving the accuracy of results. Both cameras will feed back to a single computer workstation running ViperTrack, a software for compiling and analyzing IR camera data, which will be utilized to provide a detailed data set for analysis and computer model validation. In addition to improving the experimental and modelling methods for PCMs, co-applicants Drs. O'Brien and Gunay will make extensive use of this equipment within their own research, which focuses on the impact of occupant comfort under changing building conditions and adaptive building controls on the energy use within a space, respectively. The proposed equipment is critical to the success of the aforementioned research and the development of new tools and methods in Canada's battle against climate change. This is especially true and timely, given the substantial energy and emission target reductions required by 2025 to meet the 2030 objectives of the Canadian government.