CTS began in late 2003 as a typical "garage business." Thermal system experiments were conducted in two closed loop wind tunnels and four environmental chambers housed in a steel Quonset garage building. All the other activities were combined into the "blue house", a converted two-bedroom ranch style house. The conference room was the former living room, office space was carved out of what had been bedrooms, and the unfinished basement served as the workshop, calibration facilities, and storage. During the early years many projects were successfully completed in such limited space, sometimes competing with each other for the available physical and even electrical resources.
At the end of 2006, CTS undertook its first ambitious expansion. In December, a new laboratory building was completed and quickly filled with additional facilities needed for new projects and continuations of ongoing work. The main laboratory building included eleven additional environmental chambers, metal shops, an electrical shop, and a dual-purpose classroom/conference room.
In early 2008, a brick addition to the main building was completed. The new structure houses the engineering office space, as well as smaller meeting and conference rooms. In 2009 CTS said good-bye to the "blue house". A new building addition then provided additional laboratory space along with new calibration and electronic shops bringing the total CTS size to 20,000 square feet; a factor of ten increase in the first five years!
In 2010 CTS tripled in size by adding two additional 20,000 square foot buildings which house additional laboratory and fabrication space as well as prototyping lines for heat exchanger manufacturing. In 2012/2013 CTS has again experienced strong growth bringing the campus to 5 buildings and 100,000 square feet in total as we approach our 10 year anniversary.