Thermally Active Surfaces

Kiel Moe has a big problem with HVAC systems. “Why do we heat and cool buildings with air?” the 33-year-old assistant professor of architecture asks. “Air is an irrational medium of energy transfer.” Water’s higher density, he says, makes it far better at capturing and channeling energy—and employing it mirrors the human body’s model of conditioning itself. “Your body is basically a thermally active surface,” Moe explains. “It uses blood—or, essentially, water—to move heat energy from its core to its skin. Imagine how big the size of the lungs and the heart and veins would have to be if we were conditioning our bodies with air.”

Moe hopes that incorporating thermally active surfaces—moving water through hydronic tubing embedded in concrete slabs or plaster surfaces—will have another side benefit: money that would have gone toward the HVAC system and dropped ceilings can be invested in a concrete structure, which, he argues, is more durable and longer lasting than steel.