ATLANTA—ASHRAE proposed a building energy labeling program and high-performance building standard at its 2009 Winter Conference. More than 2,800 people attended the conference, held in late January in Chicago. Also taking place in conjunction with the meeting was the Air-Conditioning, Heating, Refrigerating Exposition, which attracted 54,000 registered visitors and exhibitor personnel. The show ranks as the second largest AHR Expo, just behind the 2006 Show in Chicago, in terms of number of exhibiting companies (1,911).
Centered on the theme “Sustainable Urban Design: Engineering Tomorrow…Today,” the ASHRAE conference offered a technical program with more than 100 sessions, 15 educational courses and social events. The meeting also featured more than 600 meetings of technical, standards and standing committees, developing guidance for the future of the industry and ASHRAE.
“Through activities such as building energy labeling, the Advanced Energy Design Guide series and our net-zero-energy conference, ASHRAE members really are engineering tomorrow…today,” ASHRAE president Bill Harrison said. “Chicago and its sustainable skyline offered a great opportunity to witness application of the technology shared at ASHRAE’s technical program, educational sessions and committee meetings.”
Building Energy Labeling Program
A major announcement was ASHRAE’s proposed building energy labeling program, which the society expects to launch at the 2009 Annual Conference in Louisville, Ky. Uniform metrics are vital to making buildings more energy efficient, according to Ron Jarnagin, chair of the committee overseeing the program, who updated attendees.
The ASHRAE program will include a method for rating the energy performance of buildings covered by Standard 90.1; qualification criteria for raters and assessors; provision of both asset and operational ratings to cover both design and operations; and a process for approving alternative methods. For more information on the proposal, visit www.ashrae.org/energylabeling.
In addition, the newly expanded committee responsible for Standard 189.1P, Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, held its first meeting in Chicago. The committee approved an aggressive work plan with a goal to release a public review draft this spring. The committee has been expanded to 39 members after a recent call for members to broaden the variety of industries, designers and code officials participating.
It was also announced that more than 154,000 copies of the four Advanced Energy Design Guides are in circulation in 180 countries. These guides show how to reduce the energy consumption of buildings 30 percent beyond Standard 90.1. Also at the conference, ASHRAE president Harrison presented his State-of-the-Society address, updating attendees on his theme, “Maintain to Sustain.” The speech can be read at www.ashrae.org/harrison.
The Elephant in the Room
“There is an elephant in the room but it seems that hardly anyone knows it’s there,” he said. “Those in the building industry see and recognize it for the monstrosity it is, but most people don’t know that they’re essentially avoiding a huge energy issue. Everywhere you look, there’s talk of increased fuel efficiency for vehicles, alternative fuels and compact fluorescent light bulbs. These are admirable efforts, and I would never want to detract from those. But the elephant in the corner—our world’s existing building stock—constitutes roughly 30 to 40 percent of our primary energy use, easily larger than either transportation or industry. It’s time we all started focusing on it.”
Meeting highlights include the technical program, with its theme of Sustainable Urban Design, featuring more than 105 sessions. The most well-attended sessions dealt with Standard 189.1P, CO2 sensors and demand-controlled ventilation, building energy labeling, innovations in mechanical systems for high-rise buildings, commercial building re-tuning, lessons learned from solar technologies in recent times, air filtration for sustainable buildings, variable speed pump applications for energy savings, and building information modeling and performance analysis.
Also offered were the ASHRAE Learning Institute’s four Professional Development Seminars and 11 short courses. The most popular courses dealt with exceeding Standard 90.1, chilled beams and proposed Standard 189.1P on high performance buildings.
