SOCIETY NEWS RELEASES:

ATLANTA – The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has launched a new campaign emphasizing its role as “the engineering engine that drives sustainability.”

As part of ASHRAE’s stronger focus on its involvement in green buildings, the Society has introduced a new logo, theme, Engineering for Sustainability, and Website, www.engineeringforsustainability.org. These will be used to identify ASHRAE products and services related to sustainability.

“ASHRAE has long provided ‘engineering for sustainability’ by applying its diverse technology assets to the sustainability movement in energy efficiency, indoor environment and industrial processes,” Ron Jarnagin, chair of a committee developing a roadmap for sustainability for the Society, said. “With growing focus in the industry on the green movement, we need to emphasize that ASHRAE is the engineering engine that drives sustainability.”

Jarnagin noted that the Society’s recent efforts include publishing and working on the Advanced Energy Design Guide series, Standard 90.1, which contains a section guiding designers on how to meet requirements for building rating programs, and the ASHRAE GreenGuide, all part of an ASRHAE green “toolkit.”

Sustainability also is addressed through other standards and special publications, ASHRAE Journal articles, ASHRAE Learning Institute courses and in the ASHRAE Handbook.

Opportunities for involvement in shaping ASHRAE’s sustainability future include technical committees and local chapters.

ASHRAE, founded in 1894, is an international organization of 55,000 persons. Its sole objective is to advance through research, standards writing, publishing and continuing education the arts and sciences of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration to serve the evolving needs of the public.

• ATLANTA - As part of ongoing efforts to increase use of its standards, theAmerican Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has announced a major change to availability of addenda to code-intended standards.
•        The move puts ASHRAE in line with issuance of model building codes.
•        In the past, addenda for code-intended standards on continuous maintenance were posted individually on ASHRAE.org after being approved by the Board of Directors for publication. Now, Board-approved addenda to code-intended standards will be published in a supplement. The supplements for each standard will be published on a regular schedule halfway between the three year publication of each standard. The addenda also will be incorporated into each standard when it is reissued after its last publication.
•        Richard Hermans, P.E., chair of ASHRAE's Standards Committee, acknowledges the change is significant.    "Our whole approach to how we relate to the building code industry is
• changing," Hermans said. "We are seeking more involvement with the model code development community to assist us in our code proposals. We are responding to member concerns over the cost of keeping up with our code-intended standards. By cost, I am not referring to the dollars spent for obtaining the updated documents but rather the cost in time to train employees about the new requirements contained in addenda. And we are aligning our release of certain standards to coincide with the model code schedules for code change proposals."
•         All of these actions point to a policy of releasing addenda on a predictable schedule spaced out over years, he said. "In this way, we will develop our code-intended standards in the same way that groups such as the International Code Council and the National Fire Protection Association, both of which incorporate ASHRAE standards, maintain their model codes," he said.
•         The change applies only to code-intended standards that are on continuous maintenance. These are:
• .. Standard 15, Safety Standard for Refrigeration Systems;
• .. Standard 34, Designation and Safety Classification of Refrigerants;
• .. Standard 52.2, Method of Testing General Ventilation Air Cleaning
• ..Devices for Removal Efficiency by Particle Size;
• .. Standard 62.1, Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in
• Commercial, Institutional, Industrial and High-Rise Residential Buildings;
• .. Standard 62.2, Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in
• Low-Rise Residential Buildings;
• .. Standard 90.1, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise
• Residential Buildings;
• .. Standard 90.2, Energy Efficient Design of Low-Rise Residential
• Buildings;
• .. Standard 140, Standard Method of Test for the Evaluation of Building
• Energy Analysis Computer Programs.
•         The first supplements for standards published will be available in
• March 2006.
•         For more information on ASHRAE's work in standards, visit www.ashrae.org/standards.
•         ASHRAE, founded in 1894, is an international organization of 55,000 persons. Its sole objective is to advance through research, standards writing, publishing and continuing education the arts and sciences of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration to serve theevolving needs of the public.