2017 ASHRAE Annual Conference

Building EQ has many new features and offers support for ASHRAE members in their energy savings efforts. The most prominent change is that data will be entered through a web portal rather than filling out a spreadsheet. New marketing tools will be provided to members as the year progresses.

Adapt Building EQ provides a college senior-level undergraduate or graduate course on building energy auditing and analysis using the ASHRAE Building EQ rating system as a learning framework. Students will experience project-based learning through hands-on engineering in real buildings under the guidance of industry professionals. The course is nominally three semester credit hours. It involves 10 weeks of classroom instruction followed by five weeks of hands-on field work in teams under the guidance of local industry mentors. Course content will be freely available through ASHRAE student branches. Students will be expected to purchase some resources through ASHRAE with student discounts.

The ASHRAE Building EQ program benefits owners and managers of building portfolios. For each building, the program provides an energy rating along with actionable recommendations to improve building performance. These recommendations are made by a professional assessment of a building’s energy use as determined by In Operation and/or As Designed ratings method. Building EQ is the only rating system that offers both methods with a consistent baseline to make comparisons along with detailed actionable recommendations. ASHRAE entered into an agreement with APPA in July 2016 with the commitment to cooperate across many areas including implementing Building EQ on university campuses.

APPA is the preeminent organization for university facilities management in North America. APPA has 15,000 members at 1400 institutions. APPA is keenly interested in transforming the way we look at performance of buildings. APPA entered into an agreement with ASHRAE to cooperate in areas of mutual interest. Building EQ offers one opportunity to advance facilities management and help positively shape our current and future built environment.