Today was interesting. I tagged along to a lecture about how large building (offices, schools, universities) air conditioning systems work. They talked about CAV (constant air volume), VAV (variable air volume) and dynamic systems (I forget the acronym) - basically how technology has moved from constantly circulating air, to air circulating based on demand - saving energy by not having to provide fresh, heated air into a room with nobody breathing it.
It's the solution to the problem of how to get many hundreds of people into a large enclosed space, keep them at optimum operating temperature and oxygen levels, all day long, all year round. Of course, that is what the company wants - maximum efficiency of all the parts in the machine.
I don't want to be critical of them - the guys who came in and talked were engaged, clear thinkers in their fields. And, with their systems, you only heat/cool the areas where people are.
I couldn't help wondering.. can't we be outside on the hot days, work less in the winter. Of course, there will always be a need for some large buildings - but perhaps not for business. For learning centres, government-level bureaucracy, but...
Well. It was interesting, anyway. We had a tour of the university's new building, looking specifically at the environmental controls - large heat exchangers (basically large wheels of thin aluminium fins, rotating slowly to gain heat from one flow of air and release it back to another - on a cold day, keeping the warmth already inside the building in, preheating the incoming cold air, and vice versa on hot days), huge pipes, ducts, filters.
I'll think of it when I'm in my tent, and wonder: where would I rather be?
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