The Building Environment Simulation and Testing Facility (BEST)

The Building Environment Simulation and Testing Facility  (BEST) is a state of the art installation designed for full scale thermal and air quality research.  It consists of an environmental and a climatic chamber each with its own HVAC system.   The facilities’ 32 foot by 16 foot chamber with 8 foot high ceilings can be flexibly partitioned.  Sophisticated controls and data acquisition systems enable the facility to run a wide range of environmental conditions, including chemical exposure conditions, and to ascertain the energy consumption, air quality, and thermal comfort of different HVAC systems both in the facility and on the site. 
This facility has been designed for maximum flexibility to encourage a wide variety of research and testing programs. Both the HVAC systems and the control systems are reconfigurable such that components, subsystems or even complete systems may be easily installed, modified and tested. 

For information on how PHRC can meet your laboratory needs please contact Dr. Ali Memari, Director of PHRC or Paul Kremer, Research Associate and Manager of the laboratories of the PHRC and the Department of Architectural Engineering.