The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE ) is an American
professional association
A professional association (also called a professional body, professional organization, or professional society) usually seeks to advocacy, further a particular profession, the interests of individuals and organisations engaged in that professio ...
seeking to advance
heating, ventilation, air conditioning and
refrigeration
The term refrigeration refers to the process of removing heat from an enclosed space or substance for the purpose of lowering the temperature.International Dictionary of Refrigeration, http://dictionary.iifiir.org/search.phpASHRAE Terminology, ht ...
(HVAC&R) systems design and construction. ASHRAE has over 57,000 members in more than 132 countries worldwide.
ASHRAE's members are composed of
building services engineers,
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
s, mechanical contractors, building owners, equipment manufacturers' employees, and others concerned with the design and construction of HVAC&R systems in buildings. The society funds research projects, offers continuing education programs, and develops and publishes
technical standard
A technical standard is an established norm or requirement for a repeatable technical task which is applied to a common and repeated use of rules, conditions, guidelines or characteristics for products or related processes and production methods, ...
s to improve
building services engineering
Building services engineering is a professional engineering discipline that strives to achieve a safe and comfortable indoor environment whilst minimizing the environmental impact of a building.
Alternative titles are "building services engineerin ...
,
energy efficiency
Energy efficiency may refer to:
* Energy efficiency (physics), the ratio between the useful output and input of an energy conversion process
** Electrical efficiency, useful power output per electrical power consumed
** Mechanical efficiency, a ra ...
,
indoor air quality
Indoor air quality (IAQ) is the air quality within and around buildings and structures. IAQ is known to affect the health, comfort, and well-being of building occupants. Poor indoor air quality has been linked to sick building syndrome, reduce ...
, and
sustainable development
Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The des ...
.
History
ASHRAE was founded in 1894 at a meeting of
engineers
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, formerly headquartered at 345 East
47th Street, and has held an annual meeting since 1895. Until 1954 it was known as the American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers (ASHVE); in that year it changed its name to the American Society of Heating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHAE). Its current name and organization came from the 1959 merger of ASHAE and the American Society of Refrigerating Engineers (ASRE).
Despite having 'American' in its name, ASHRAE is a global organization, holding international events. In 2012, it rebranded itself with a new logo and tagline: "Shaping Tomorrow's Built Environment Today".
2020 Coronavirus advice
Lawrence J. Schoen argued in the ''ASHRAE Journal Newsletter'' of 24 March 2020 that,
because of the
WHO
Who or WHO may refer to:
* Who (pronoun), an interrogative or relative pronoun
* Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism
* World Health Organization
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Who, a creature in the Dr. Seuss book '' Horton He ...
guidance:
it was the duty of ASHRAE members to
* Increase disinfection of frequently touched surfaces.
* Install more hand sanitation dispensers, assuming they can be procured.
* Supervise or shut down food preparation and warming areas, including the office pantry and coffee station.
* Close or post warning signs at water fountains in favor of bottle filling stations and sinks, or even better, encourage employees to bring their water from home.
In light of the
OSHA
OSHA or Osha may refer to:
Work
* Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a federal agency of the United States that regulates workplace safety and health
* Occupational Safety and Health Act (United States) of 1970, a federal law in the Un ...
''Guidance on Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19'' that "non-health care workplaces fall into the medium and lower exposure risk categories", and absent a clear WHO directive, only after running through the checklist mentioned above should they tackle the HVAC
vector
Vector most often refers to:
*Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction
*Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism
Vector may also refer to:
Mathematic ...
. He acknowledged that in at least one non peer-reviewed paper detectable levels of the
SARS-CoV-2
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a ...
virus RNA were found to be transmitted by
aerodynamic suspension in toilets and
ICUs
220px, Intensive care unit
An intensive care unit (ICU), also known as an intensive therapy unit or intensive treatment unit (ITU) or critical care unit (CCU), is a special department of a hospital or health care facility that provides intensiv ...
but decided to make this revelation of secondary importance in his own Guidance.
Further discussion of this topic can be found in a ''
National Post
The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...
'' article by
Tom Blackwell
Thomas Leo Blackwell (1938 – April 8, 2020) was an American hyperrealist of the original first generation of Photorealists, represented by Louis K. Meisel Gallery. Blackwell is one of the Photorealists most associated with the style. He produ ...
dated 26 April 2020.
Blackwell mentions the
CIHR
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR; french: Instituts de recherche en santé du Canada; IRSC) is a federal agency responsible for funding health and medical research in Canada. Comprising 13 institutes, it is the successor to the M ...
-funded study of
Brian Fleck
Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan in English) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world.
It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word me ...
, who observes that
Legionnaires' disease is known to be spread by buildings. Blackwell repeats the warning of Morawska and Cao, who strongly believe:
The research article entitled ''COVID-19 Outbreak Associated with Air Conditioning in Restaurant, Guangzhou, China, 2020''
was also mentioned by Blackwell in support of his
hypothesis
A hypothesis (plural hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it. Scientists generally base scientific hypotheses on previous obse ...
; and on 27 April 2020, the journal ''
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
'' published an article entitled ''Aerodynamic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 in two Wuhan hospitals'' in which air flow in poorly ventilated areas such as indoor toilets were possibly to blame for the persistence of the harm to society.
Publications
The
ASHRAE Handbook
The ASHRAE Handbook is the four-volume flagship publication of the nonprofit technical organization ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers). This Handbook is considered the most comprehensive and autho ...
is a four-volume resource for HVAC&R technology and is available in both print and electronic versions. The volumes are ''Fundamentals'', ''HVAC Applications'', ''HVAC Systems and Equipment'', and ''Refrigeration''. One of the four volumes is updated each year.
ASHRAE also publishes a set of
standards and guidelines relating to HVAC systems and issues, that are often referenced in
building code
A building code (also building control or building regulations) is a set of rules that specify the standards for constructed objects such as buildings and non-building structures. Buildings must conform to the code to obtain planning permiss ...
s and used by consulting engineers, mechanical contractors, architects, and government agencies. These standards are periodically reviewed, revised and republished.
Examples of some ASHRAE Standards are:
* Standard 34 – Designation and Safety Classification of
Refrigerants
*
Standard 55 –
Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy
* Standard 62.1 – Ventilation for Acceptable
Indoor Air Quality
Indoor air quality (IAQ) is the air quality within and around buildings and structures. IAQ is known to affect the health, comfort, and well-being of building occupants. Poor indoor air quality has been linked to sick building syndrome, reduce ...
(versions: 2001 and earlier as "62", 2004 and beyond as "62.1")
* 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 – The
IESNA
The Illuminating Engineering Society (IES), formerly the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA), is an industry-backed, not-for-profit, learned society that was founded in New York City on January 10, 1906. The IES's stated mi ...
is a joint sponsor of this standard.
* Standard 135 –
BACnet
BACnet is a communication protocol for building automation and control (BAC) networks that use the ASHRAE, ANSI, and ISO 16484-5 standards protocol.
BACnet was designed to allow communication of building automation and control systems for applic ...
- A Data Communication Protocol for Building Automation and Control Networks
* Standard 189.1 – Standard for the Design of High Performance,
Green Building
Green building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planni ...
s Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings
The society also publishes two magazines: the ''ASHRAE Journal'' is issued monthly, and ''High Performing Buildings Magazine'' is published quarterly. They contain articles on related technology, information on upcoming meetings, editorials, and case studies of various well-performing buildings.
ASHRAE also publishes books, ''ASHRAE Transactions'', and the ''International Journal of HVAC&R Research''.
Legislation
ASHRAE supported the
Streamlining Energy Efficiency for Schools Act of 2014 (H.R. 4092; 113th Congress), a bill that would require the
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United Stat ...
to establish a centralized clearinghouse to disseminate information on federal programs, incentives, and mechanisms for financing energy-efficient retrofits and upgrades at schools.
Society awards
ASHRAE offers six categories of awards: achievement awards to recognize personal honors; personal awards for general and specific society activities; paper awards; society awards for groups or chapters; chapters and regional awards.
ASHRAE Fellows
ASHRAE Fellow is a Membership Grade of Distinction conferred by The College of Fellows of ASHRAE, Inc. to an ASHRAE member with significant publications or innovations and distinguished scientific and engineering background in the fields of heating, refrigeration, air conditioning, ventilation. The ASHRAE Fellow membership grade is the highest elected grade in ASHRAE.
Headquarters renewal
To demonstrate the Society's commitment to sustainability, ASHRAE renovated its previous headquarters building in Atlanta, Ga. After the renovation and occupancy in June 2008, the building received many awards, including an
Energy Star
Energy Star (trademarked ''ENERGY STAR'') is a program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that promotes energy efficiency. The program provides information on the energy consumption of pr ...
rating with a score of 95, a Platinum Certification from USGBC's
LEED program, and four Green Globes from the
Green Building Initiative Green Building Initiative (GBI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that owns and administers the Green Globes green building assessment and certification in the United States and Canada. It was established in 2004 and is headquartered in Portlan ...
. The current site energy use intensity (EUI) is 35.8 kBtu/Sqft (411 MJ/m2), a 60 percent reduction from the pre-renovation value. The renovation included the use of a dedicated outdoor air supply (DOAS) system with energy recovery and humidity control; a ground-source heat pump system (GSHP); and variable refrigerant flow systems with heat recovery. The building also serves as a live case study. A web-based user interface allowed researchers around the world to extract data from the building to study factors such as energy use and electric power demand, water consumption and indoor air quality.
In moving its world headquarters from Atlanta to the Atlanta suburb of
Peachtree Corners
Peachtree Corners is a city in Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States. It is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area, and is the largest city in Gwinnett County with a population of 42,243 as of the 2020 US Census.
Peachtree Corners is the only ...
the society plans to spend $15.7 million to retrofit an existing building so that its energy consumption is reduced to net-zero and so that it will become a showcase for the latest HVAC&R equipment and technology.
See also
*
ASHRAE 90.1
*
ASHRAE 55 ''ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55: Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy'' is an American National Standard published by ASHRAE that establishes the ranges of indoor environmental conditions to achieve acceptable thermal comfort for occupant ...
*
ASHRAE Handbook
The ASHRAE Handbook is the four-volume flagship publication of the nonprofit technical organization ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers). This Handbook is considered the most comprehensive and autho ...
*
Building services engineering
Building services engineering is a professional engineering discipline that strives to achieve a safe and comfortable indoor environment whilst minimizing the environmental impact of a building.
Alternative titles are "building services engineerin ...
*
Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers
The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE; pronounced 'sib-see') is an international professional engineering association based in London, England that represents building services engineers. It is a full member of the C ...
*
Chartered Association of Building Engineers
*
Ralph G. Nevins
*
Sick building syndrome
Sick building syndrome (SBS) is an unsubstantiated diagnosis where health problems are attributed to buildings. The cause of the health problems are unknown.
Symptoms attributed to SBS may or may not be a direct result of inadequate cleaning or ...
*
Uniform Codes
Uniform Codes are codes of practice developed and maintained by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials ( IAPMO) using the American National Standards Institute's (ANSI) accredited consensus development process working ...
*
Uniform Mechanical Code
The Uniform Mechanical Code (UMC) is a model code developed by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) to govern the installation, inspection and maintenance of HVAC (heating, ventilating and air-conditioning) ...
References
External links
*
ASHRAE publicationsThe AHR Expo - Co-Sponsored by ASHRAE and ARIASHRAE Building Energy Quotient Program
{{DEFAULTSORT:American Society Of Heating, Refrigerating And Air-Conditioning Engineers
American engineering organizations
Construction industry of the United States
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning