Emerson is adding a 2,000-square-foot, two-story home as part of the innovation center currently under construction at the University of Dayton.

The “home inside a building” is one of the five test modules Emerson Climate Technologies is constructing on the university’s Dayton, Ohio, campus.

Like the rest of the $35 million Emerson Innovation Center — aka the Helix — the home will be a laboratory for HVAC construction products and will incorporate the company’s green HVAC and other concepts. Plans call for the home to use ambient controls to simulate a of variety weather conditions.

The three-bedroom, one-and-a-half bathroom home will be fully furnished and include a fully stocked kitchen, laundry room, home theater and several HVAC systems.

“We will be evaluating comfort and energy savings from every angle,” said Hung Pham, director of integrated technologies at Emerson Climate Technologies’ air-conditioning business. “This home module in the Helix will allow us to change refrigerant, HVAC systems, airflow and weather to help evaluate impact on human comfort and health from the standpoint of air conditioning, heating, indoor air quality, humidity, noise, lighting and other factors.”

The center’s 40,000 square feet are dedicated to finding HVAC market solutions, Pham added.

“Consumer demands for comfort, connectivity, energy savings and environmentally-friendly features are shaping the future of this industry, while we also need to think about current and future regulatory requirements,” he said. “Emerson’s collaborative research with our OEM (original equipment manufacturer) customers and other channel partners in this residential connected home module will focus on identifying current unmet needs, developing innovations for tomorrow’s needs, and improving the performance of our technology in existing applications.”