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Heat Pumps Chapter Now Available For Open Access
In partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy, Professor Gerring announced that the "Heat Pumps" chapter from her book "Renewable Energy Systems For Building Designers" is now Open Access and available for anyone to download for no cost. Click here to download "Chapter 11: Heat Pumps" directly from Taylor & Francis. 

The "Heat Pumps" chapter is also integrated into the "HVAC - Introduction to Heat Pumps" free training module on the Dept. of Energy's Building Science Education website. Professors, teachers or trainers may freely use this training to update or create their own curriculum. 

White shape with thick black line representing a house with a gable roof. A black line on the roof represents PV array. A circle filled in yellow on the left represents the sun. A black line with three equally spaced ovals at the top represents a wind turbine. A green teardrop in the front represents a leaf.
Architectural Qualifications
  • NCARB registration: Pennsylvania and Arizona
  • United States Green Building Council Certification (USGBC): LEED AP BD+C
  • Passive House International U.S. Certification (PHIUS): CPHC (Certified Consultant) & CPHB
  • Woman Owned Firm/Small Business
White shape with thick black line representing a house with a gable roof. A black line on the roof represents PV array. A circle filled in yellow on the left represents the sun. A black line with three equally spaced ovals at the top represents a wind turbine. A green teardrop in the front represents a leaf.
Architectural Services
Central rectangle of white with a colored shape on it connected to smaller colored rectangles around it.

Project conception: we help you defining exactly what you want and how it would work.

Textured lines across a rectangular image with a rectangle cut out in the middle.

Visualization: hand sketching, digital imagery and models to help you understand your project.

Photo of a sky with a sunburst of color from golden at the horizon to pink to deep purple overhead.

Consulting: we can provide expert advice to make your project successful.

Black ink defining several rectangular shapes representing buildings and courtyards on a site plan.

Design: we can provide design concepts for your project. 

Black ink lines creating rectangles to form a house plan.

Drawings: we can provide drawings for your project. 

White shape with thick black line representing a house with a gable roof. A black line on the roof represents PV array. A circle filled in yellow on the left represents the sun. A black line with three equally spaced ovals at the top represents a wind turbine. A green teardrop in the front represents a leaf.
Renewable Energy Systems for Building Designers:
Fundamentals of Net Zero and High Performance Design
Image of book with discount code

Now Available!

Click through to https://routledge.pub/RenewableEnergySystemsforBuildingDesigners to use the 20% discount code AFL02.

When my students ask me "Professor Gerring, why did you write this book?" my answer is "Because we are at a point in the building industry where we need comfortable, healthy and self-sufficient buildings."

This book meets my goal for teaching how to use renewable energy sources to design high-performance, energy-efficient buildings. It's chock full of easy-to-understand descriptions with full-color graphics in every chapter. I've also included very instructive, real-world case studies to demonstrate how the methods work in practice.

Part I
  • Introduction to Renewable Energy and Building Performance:
    Introduces subject matter, covers basic concepts of renewable systems and where to find information, electrical concepts, solar insolation, designing for climate, building performance and energy efficiency, energy modeling and indoor air quality.
Part II
  • Renewable Energy - Systems and Design:
    Covers specific systems including biomass, heat pumps, solar thermal hot water, photovoltaics, racking, wind, microhydro and marine renewable energy.
Part III
  • System Implementation, Monitoring, and Payback:
    Covers batteries and energy storage, controllers and monitors, backup power, costing and payback as well as resiliency and power.
Part IV
  • Case studies:
    Including Rocky Mountain Institute Innovation Center, City of Libby Microhydro PRV, University of Hawaii FROGs Classrooms, 125 Haus, and more (additional THERM case study on the Routledge book website).
Appendices
  • Include checklists for planning and designing various renewable energy systems. In addition there are examples of sizing a PV system and solar thermal system as well as a PV wiring workshop for practicing wiring of arrays and batteries.
Book Intent
  • To provide an easily accessible resource that is like having a consultant at hand! Chapters are intended to be stand-alone, but tie together to cover all the basics for creating high performance buildings that can become net zero.