Achievement

A materials engineering student, Micah Casteel, for a portion of an IGERT sponsored class, helped develop a viable combined heat and power system for use in new residential structures based in New York state. By integrating classwork, coursework, and discussion with other IGERT students and faculty the student was able to design a novel macroscopic thermal following system. By taking advantage of New York's net metering electricity laws and climate the system is able to utilize a high percentage of thermal energy as home heating and domestic hot water by adjusting the operation point throughout the year. This allows the system to run at high levels of overall efficiency even as electrical and thermal loads fluctuate. Finally, the students were able to perform the design exercise under the supervision of IGERT faculty which allowed for a high degree of feedback, discussion, and design improvement.