#005 – Dr. Zoltan Nagy: The Gap Between Energy & Thermal Comfort

Our guest this month (December 15th) is Dr. Zoltan Nagy. In addition to having a really cool first name and being young and accessible, Dr. Nagy is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at The University of Texas in Austin, directing the Intelligent Environments Laboratory since 2016. A roboticist turned building engineer, Dr. Nagy’s research interests include important topics that might actually change buildings for the better: Smart buildings and cities Renewable energy systems Control systems for zero emission building operation Machine learning and artificial intelligence for the built environment Complex fenestration systems Influence of building occupants on energy performance Dr. Nagy, Yuzhen Peng, Adam Rysanek and Arno Schlüter won Best Paper Award 2017 in Building & Environment for their work on occupancy learning-based, demand driven building control (http://nagy.caee.utexas.edu/best-paper-award-2017-in-building-environment/). Prior to joining UT, Austin, Dr. Nagy was a senior scientist at the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH)in Zurich, in the Department of Architecture. He worked with Prof. Arno Schlueter in the Architecture & Building Systems research group on control systems for sustainable building operation. Dr. Nagy also co-founded the award-winning high-tech spin-off Femtotools in 2007, and was member of its board of directors until 2011. In this episode, we discuss: The gap between energy and thermal comfort Why resultant temperature matters Dr. P. Ole Fanger and the Thermal Comfort Index (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Povl_Ole_Fanger) How controls are the “ambassadors of building occupants to the HVAC system” And much more… For more information on Dr. Nagy Twitter: @Z0ltanNagy Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoltan-nagy-45605114/ Website: http://nagy.caee.utexas.edu     Edifice Complex Podcast Podcast: www.edificecomplexpodcast.com Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDGEo1pCt2k8NzvBNJ_78lA Podcast on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Edifice-Complex-Podcast-792113294283607/