Thermal III - Thermal Mass & Passive Cooling
Place thermal mass so it works, size and detail a Pangea cooling tube, and lay out the complete summer air path from tube inlet to skylight exhaust - then explain to a client or an inspector how the building cools itself with no machine and no power.
What you will be able to do
- Place and size thermal mass through a whole building
- Specify and install a Pangea cooling tube, slope and perforations included
- Lay out a complete summer air path that actually moves air
- Operate the system seasonally and teach an occupant to
Syllabus
5 parts · 19 lessons · 162 assessed questions · about 6 hours
Part A THERMAL MASS
- 1How Thermal Mass Works15 min · 7 q
- 2Mass Properties of Materials15 min · 7 q
- 3Locating Thermal Mass16 min · 8 q
- 4Sizing - and Why Pangea Does Not Use a Ratio19 min · 9 q
- 5Earth Sheltering and the Deep-Earth Sink18 min · 8 q
Part B THE COOLING PROBLEM
- 6Heat Avoidance Comes First16 min · 8 q
- 7The Four Ways Heat Leaves17 min · 9 q
Part C THE FOUR SYSTEMS
- 8Comfort Ventilation15 min · 8 q
- 9Night Flush Cooling15 min · 8 q
- 10Radiant Cooling16 min · 8 q
- 11Evaporative Cooling - and Why Pangea Does Not Use It18 min · 9 q
- 12Earth Cooling - the Principle18 min · 9 q
Part D THE PANGEA COOLING SYSTEM
- 13The Cooling Tube - Specification20 min · 9 q
- 14How the Cooling Tube Actually Works28 min · 10 q
- 15The Greenhouse, the Skylights and the Stack21 min · 10 q
- 16Sizing, Balance and What Goes Wrong22 min · 11 q
Part E INTEGRATION
- 17Designing the Whole Cooling System15 min · 8 q
- 18Operation and the Occupant16 min · 8 q
- 19Summer Resilience17 min · 8 q
Ref Appendices
- A1Thermal Mass Properties
- A2Pangea Cooling Tube Specification
- A3The Summer Air Path
- A4Seasonal Operation - Occupant Card
Before you start
Course 5 (Thermal I) and Course 6 (Thermal II). Completes the thermal sequence.
About this course
Course competency
On completing this course you can specify and place thermal mass throughout a building, size and detail a Pangea cooling tube, lay out the complete summer air path from tube inlet to skylight exhaust, explain to a client or an inspector how a building cools itself with no machine and no power, and operate the system through a year.
Why this course exists
Courses 5 and 6 built a building that catches the winter sun and holds onto it. Done alone, that building is a liability in August.
This course is the other half of the year, and it is the half that is getting harder. Globally, cooling demand is rising faster than heating demand (Course 5, Lesson 3.5), and a heat wave with a grid failure is more dangerous than a cold snap with one.
It is also the half where the Pangea system is most distinctive. Passive solar heating is well documented everywhere. A building that cools itself through perforated aluminum culverts buried in an earth berm, driven by nothing but the sun on a greenhouse roof, is not.
Note for students: this course contains the most Pangea-specific technical content in the curriculum. The thermal mass principles are general building science. The cooling system in Part D is a particular set of dimensions and details refined over decades of building in the high desert, and the numbers in it are Pangea's.
The two halves of the battery
Course 5 established that thermal mass is a battery for temperature - storing the sun's warmth in winter and the earth's coolness in summer.
This course is where the second half gets built out. The same mass, the same walls, the same floor. What changes is what charges them and when you let the heat out.
Course structure
| Part | Lessons | Subject |
|---|---|---|
| A | 1-5 | Thermal mass: mechanism, materials, placement, sizing, earth sheltering |
| B | 6-7 | The cooling problem: avoidance first, then removal |
| C | 8-12 | The four passive cooling systems |
| D | 13-16 | The Pangea cooling system - tubes, skylights, and the air path |
| E | 17-19 | Integration, operation and summer resilience |
| - | A1-A4 | Appendices: mass properties, tube specification, air path, seasonal operation |