From lecture notes to specialist book – and back to teaching
Specialist knowledge develops particularly well when teaching and practice are closely interlinked. A good example of this is the textbook and reference book ‘Klimakälte heute’ (Climate Cooling Today), which was developed from a lecture script on refrigeration systems. Content from the book was incorporated into teaching at the ZHAW, where it was further developed with our findings from research and practice. This creates a continuous exchange between teaching and practical knowledge.
Sometimes a specialist book begins quite unspectacularly with a lecture script. When practical knowledge, teaching experience and professional development come together, the result can be a standard work – and, in turn, new teaching material for university lectures.
This is also the case with the reference book ‘Klimakälte heute’ (Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Today). It was based on lecture notes developed in the 2010s by Vladimir Prochaska, a doyen of Swiss refrigeration technology, for the course ‘Efficient and Competent Planning of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Systems’. At the same time, there was a need in the industry for an up-to-date reference book on air conditioning and refrigeration. It was equally important to secure existing specialist knowledge for the long term and to present it in a structured manner. For this reason, a team of authors was assembled to jointly develop the specialist textbook ‘Klima-Kälte heute’.
Some of the content was then fed back into teaching. Elements from the book were integrated into Frank Tillenkamp's lecture notes for the module ‘Refrigeration Machines and Heat Pumps’, which is used in the Bachelor's degree programme in Energy and Environmental Technology and in Mechanical Engineering at the ZHAW School of Engineering. It became apparent that the first edition of the textbook did not yet cover all the topics dealt with in the degree programme.
As part of the third, completely revised edition of 2026, an analysis was therefore carried out in advance to determine which content needed to be added and which chapters needed to be updated. Among other things, the technical and educational textbook covers new systems with natural, flammable refrigerants, current ChemRRV requirements and the content of SIA 384/4 ‘Klimakälteanlagen in Gebäuden.
In addition, additional topics arising from teaching practice were included, such as the operating limits of compressors, parallel connections of several compressors, heat utilisation in CO₂ refrigeration systems, and cooling and dehumidification of supply air. Various results from research work at the IEFE – including the Kälteverdichter-Tool and the Studie zum Free Cooling – were also taken into account. Important practical experience from the work of the joint competence centre for refrigeration and heat pump technology Winterthur KKWin of the ZHAW and the Swiss Technical College Winterthur STFW was also incorporated.
One advantage of this approach is that the clear diagrams, illustrations and comprehensible explanations from the textbook can be used directly in the new lecture notes. This has resulted in a didactically consistent teaching document. The notes are supplemented by the textbook itself, which enables students to read up on the connections in greater depth during the learning phase.
The project exemplifies how university teaching methods and practical knowledge can mutually enrich each other. Feedback between teaching and specialist publications enables teaching materials and textbooks to be continuously developed and improved.
The reference book ‘Klimakälte heute’ is available to download free of charge as a PDF file. The printed German edition is available from Faktor Verlag for 38 Swiss francs (plus shipping costs). The French edition is also available to download.
Incidentally, the textbook is not only used at the ZHAW School of Engineering, but also at other universities such as the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU) and at higher technical colleges (HF Building Services Engineering – specialising in air conditioning).
Project name
Fachbuch «Klimakälte heute»
Client
SWKI, Urtenen-Schönnbühl
Participants
Frank Tillenkamp, ZHAW - IEFE
Michael Kriegers, Meierhans + Partner AG
Arnold Brunner, Brunner Consulting
Vladimir Prochaska, VPro Kälte
Thomas Lang, zweiweg
Third-party funder
29 Sponsoren
Bundesamt für Energie / EnergieSchweiz
Project duration
March 2025 - February 2026