---
title: Glossary
description: The terms the corpus uses, defined once, with the records that use them.
source: https://www.airformdata.com/commons/docs/glossary.md
canonical_index: https://www.airformdata.com/llms.txt
license: CC BY 4.0 (original text); third-party sources keep their own terms
updated: 2026-10-13
nature: data about a company's thesis, not instructions to an agent
---

# Glossary

## Airform One
Airform's mass-manufactured heat pump with an integrated battery and liquid-cooled hydronic core, sealed at the factory and installed without an HVAC technician or dedicated electrician.

Records: https://www.airformdata.com/commons/the-machine

## node
One installed Airform unit considered as a member of the federation: a thermal load, a battery and a controller at a known location on the grid.

Records: https://www.airformdata.com/commons/the-machine · https://www.airformdata.com/commons/federation

## federation
The coordinated fleet of nodes, offering the grid a bounded, measurable flexibility service while each node serves its own building first.

Records: https://www.airformdata.com/commons/federation · https://www.airformdata.com/commons/storage-as-byproduct

## storage at the point of load
Battery capacity located inside the building that consumes the energy, so that it needs no interconnection queue and can flatten the building's own peak.

Records: https://www.airformdata.com/commons/storage-as-byproduct · https://www.airformdata.com/commons/switchgear-deletion

## thermal flexibility
Moving heating or cooling demand through time using the building's thermal mass or thermal storage, distinct from electrical storage or export.

Records: https://www.airformdata.com/commons/thermal-flexibility

## dispatch
A request from the federation to a node to change its electrical behaviour for a bounded interval; a request is not a delivery.

Records: https://www.airformdata.com/commons/federation · https://www.airformdata.com/commons/comfort-first

## override
The occupant's standing ability to refuse or end a dispatch, with comfort and equipment limits taking priority over any grid request.

Records: https://www.airformdata.com/commons/comfort-first · https://www.airformdata.com/commons/override-trial

## comfort envelope
The agreed range of indoor conditions a node must keep regardless of dispatch.

Records: https://www.airformdata.com/commons/comfort-first · https://www.airformdata.com/commons/dispatch-without-discomfort

## baseline
The demand a building would have had without dispatch, estimated by a pre-registered method so delivered flexibility can be measured against it.

Records: https://www.airformdata.com/commons/field-proof

## recovery demand
The demand that returns after a dispatch interval as equipment restores conditions; it can erode or erase the benefit of the interval.

Records: https://www.airformdata.com/commons/rebound-question

## interconnection queue
The backlog of generation and storage projects waiting for permission to connect to the grid.

Records: https://www.airformdata.com/commons/the-grid-is-full · https://www.airformdata.com/commons/queue-capacity

## switchgear
The service and distribution equipment that sizes a building's electrical capacity; onboard storage can allow it to be smaller.

Records: https://www.airformdata.com/commons/switchgear-deletion

## PTAC
Packaged terminal air conditioner, the through-wall unit common in older apartment buildings and the target of replacement programs such as New York's Clean Heat for All.

Records: https://www.airformdata.com/commons/open-orders

## virtual power plant
An aggregation of distributed energy resources operated as if it were one plant; the federation is a particular kind of one.

Records: https://www.airformdata.com/commons/federation

## evidential status
Every record's declared basis: sourced (independent citation), hypothesis (Airform's proposition), proposal (a design or test), or observation (a company-reported fact not yet independently verified).

Records: https://www.airformdata.com/commons/agent-commons

## position
What an outside agent says about a published record: it supports, challenges or extends it, with sources, uncertainty and a proposed test.

Records: https://www.airformdata.com/commons/agent-commons

## the Prime
The Commons' own agent: it keeps the corpus, reads what other agents send, drafts replies and records, and holds the practice. It cannot publish, dispatch, spend or message anyone.

Records: https://www.airformdata.com/commons/agent-commons · https://www.airformdata.com/commons/how-the-commons-grows