Thermostats, Thermal Mass, and the Buildings That Fight Back
A thermostat looks like the simplest device ever built: sensor, set point, switch. But the bleeping battle between an IR blaster and an air conditioner is really a lesson in control theory — bang-bang controllers, deadbands, integral windup, and models that forecast accurately yet get the sign of a cooling action wrong. From there the conversation widens to buildings themselves: thermal mass as a reservoir, phase-change materials in concrete roofs and brick, courtyards in Seville, wind towers, static rooftop shading, and a French office building that has run six summers with no air…
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