Jeff Munk is a senior research engineer for NREL’s Alaska Campus in Fairbanks and serves as the subprogram lead for the Appliance and Equipment Standards Program. His research is mainly focused on residential heat pumps, including cold climate heat pumps and laboratory and field performance measurements. His work with the Appliance and Equipment Standards Program focuses on developing and improving test procedures and efficiency metrics through investigative testing and analysis.

Prior to joining NREL in 2022, Jeff was a researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for 13 years where his research spanned many different areas, including residential heat pumps and heat pump water heaters, cold climate heat pumps, connected communities, model predictive control and reinforcement learning of HVAC and water heating equipment, and laboratory and field evaluations.

Education

M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University

B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University

Professional Experience

Researcher, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2009–2022)

Problem Resolution Engineer and Furnace Development Engineer, Carrier Corporation (2003–2008)

Awards and Honors

2022 R&D 100 Award: Ultraclean Condensing Gas Furnace

2015 U.S. Patent: Refrigerant charge management in an integrated heat pump

2013 R&D 100 Award: ClimateMaster Trilogy 40 Q-Mode Geothermal Heat Pump