Energy balances on the human body: A hands-on exploration of heat, work, and power

The details of a module with hands-on experiment and associated follow-up activities in which principles of energy balances are introduced through application to the process of respiration was discussed. The learning objective of the hands-on experiment were o perform energy balance on the body and to determine the total rate of energy expenditure. It was observed that the energy equivalent of the food consumed by a student was 2193 kcal. The role of respiration in thermal regulation of the body was investigated by using HYSYS process simulator to simulate the sensible heat and latent heat changes during respiration.