Depleted Oil Wells Aren’t Just Empty Holes Anymore
With the boom in oil and gas drilling over the last 100 years, there are many oil wells that have been depleted of oil. But these wells are drilled many thousands of feet in the ground, where the temperatures are far higher. So, these seemingly empty holes are not really empty at all, and there […]
DTC’s HVAC PE Exam Prep FEATURED TESTIMONIALS – “Critical in My Passing the Exam”
“I took the HVAC/Refrigeration PE exam for the first time and passed. I feel Dr. Tom’s class was not only very critical in my passing of the exam, but it was exactly what I was looking for in a review course. His class laid out the important subjects and gave me a guide to be […]
Feeding College Students and the Campus Grid
At the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, campus food services feed a lot of students. And the food waste feeds the power grid. Through a $339,000 grant from Wisconsin Public Service Commission’s Energy Innovation Program, the campus has installed a dry bio-digester to break down food waste and grass clippings. The methane produced will be burned […]
Dual-Purpose Home Heat Pump Helps Reduce Emissions
The US Department of Energy is pushing residential, commercial, and industrial energy users to switch from natural gas and other fuels to electricity. Several cities in California are banning natural gas for new buildings. One important way this can happen is to install heat pumps to provide space heating and cooling, and to provide domestic […]
A New Way to Build and Insulate with Wood
Several scientists at the Nanjing Forestry University in China, as reported by the American Chemical Society’s Nano Letters publication, have created a new insulation material made of wood. The scientists connected nanocrystals of wood cellulose with silanes (silicon compounds) to create an aerogel foam that has a visible light reflectance of 96% and an emittance […]
FEATURED TESTIMONIAL – “I Trusted the DTC Method and I Passed!”
“Just got the results back for the ME: TFS Exam, and I passed. I believe the DTC method of taking the exam is the ultimate make or break in passing this exam. After going through Doctor Tom’s Classroom, I felt confident with all of the material with the exception of maybe cycles. As I went […]
New Device Reduces Emissions from Natural Gas Fired Heaters
Natural gas and oil fired boilers and space heaters represent a large use of fossil fuel energy in this country. The more heat that can be removed from the combustion gases, the more efficient the unit is and the lower the costs of operation. Higher efficiency also means less fuel fired and lower carbon emissions. […]
New Ways to Turn Waste Heat into Electricity
Researchers at Penn State have developed a practical way to harness the energy from curved, hot surfaces and convert it to electricity. Devices known as thermoelectric generators have been around for some time. They use silicon and other compounds to convert heat into a small electric current. These devices have been mounted onto rigid metal […]
Immersion Cooling Technology Gaining Ground in Data Centers
Cooling of data centers is one of the US Department of Energy’s challenges and poses a real challenge for HVAC design engineers. Traditionally, this has been done by blowing large volumes of cold air through the building. Directing the air through the racks to pass over cooling fins to dedicated return air aisles behind the […]
Energy Efficiency using 100% Outside Air?
Every HVAC engineer knows that air quality usually improves with the more outside air that is brought into a space. This is particularly true for hospitals and other spaces where indoor air contamination is an issue. However, using lots of outside air means also having to use more energy to condition the air. In many […]
