This presentation covers the performance characteristics of unitary air-condiditoning equipment as specified by the proposed Standard 205.

This presentation provides an overview of the SPC 205 Annex for Water-Cooled Chillers with examples on how it could be used.

What other codes and standards can be used or evaluated to help in medical facility construction and specification? Several case studies will be presented with examples of surveying the landscape of other codes and standards to determine what should really apply and then creating unique solutions for the medical field.

The speaker will help session attendees understand the code barriers that can prevent the application of new technologies in medical construction, as well as the approaches that can be used to prove a new technology for inclusion in a code or standard.

The long-awaited ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 188-2015 was published June 26, 2015. Just a few weeks later, the world witnessed and followed as one of the largest outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease occurred in New York City and was unfolded in the media—with 100 cases and 10 deaths reported as of August 7, 2015. What is in ASHRAE Standard 188 that could have helped prevent this outbreak and do so for future outbreaks? There are many steps described within Standard 188 that require specific knowledge to determine how, where and what controls can be implemented to control and prevent the hazardous conditions of Legionella from persisting within building water systems. A presentation and tour of 188 is provided and discussed as to what important and pertinent information is found in Standard 188 and where users can find this information. Following the minimum Legionellosis risk management requirements for building water systems established in Standard 188 will go a long way in preventing Legionnaires’ disease and does provide the first U.S standard to address such.

While following the risk management path outlined in Standard 188 will go a long way in preventing Legionnaires’ disease, users are alerted to the fact that essential information for successful prevention will not be found in Standard 188.

The challenges for the European countries to implement nearly zero-energy buildings and achieving minimum shares of renewable energy are tremendous. There are various indications raising concerns regarding the reliability of Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) declarations and the quality of the works. Achieving a significant improvement requires strong commitment from authorities and other major players, as well as sufficiently broad societal support. QUALICHeCK responds to these challenges by: identifying issues in respect to existing procedures; highlighting best practices for easy access to reliable EPC input data, delivery of improved quality of the works, as well as more effective compliance frameworks (“lead people to do what they declare”); and raising awareness and engaging relevant stakeholders. The focus of the activities is mainly (but not limited) on 9 countries (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Greece, Romania, Spain and Sweden and four technology areas: transmission characteristics, ventilation and airtightness, sustainable summer comfort technologies and renewables in multi-energy systems. Particular attention is given to stimulation of innovation. The presentation presents the available outcomes, including the draft version of the source book on compliance. Interactive voting with the participants is used to increase the dynamics of the workshop.

The presentation presents findings of various European studies dealing with the status on the ground regarding compliance with energy performance legislation, e.g.: What level of agreement in France is there between ventilation specifications in the legislation and observations on site for new residential ventilation systems? Declared transmission characteristics versus the reality for new buildings in Cyprus. Declared conformity with overheating requirement versus correct assessment results in Estonia. Impact of calculation choices on the declared energy performances for Spain. Real versus calculated energy use in Sweden. Interactive voting with the participants is used to increase the dynamics of the workshop.

The UK has had a number of serious Legionella outbreaks over the past five years. After a major inquiry that managed to identify the causes, a guide was written and a program of information dissemination ensued. Unfortunately there have been further outbreaks and further guidance. The Health and Safety Executive has now published HSG 274, the Approved Code of Practice - ACOPS - which is the most definitive document and is a UK legal requirement. This presentation will describe the approach and the detail which this guide goes into to ensure high levels of protection.

Legionnaire’s disease is again a topic of great interest to IAQ practitioners as the incidence of this disease worldwide is on the rise. Public Works and Government Services Canada has issued a guidance document , MD 15161, on the design, operation and maintenance of building water systems in order to prevent the growth of Legionella bacteria. This presentation will focus on the inspection of building water systems, the evaluation of their associated risks and the creation of a Legionella bacteria control management plan (LBCMP) for any given building.

While the risk management approach and water management program outlined in ASHRAE Standard 188-2015 will go a long way in preventing Legionnaires’ disease, there are many common mistakes and misconceptions that can subvert a successful program. The basic principles underlying the key elements of Standard 188 will be reviewed as well as the common assumptions and measurement errors that can lead to missed opportunities to implement effective controls. Case studies will be presented that exemplify both successful and failed programs.

The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) published a guideline for the “Recognition, Evaluation, and Control of Legionella Hazards in Building Water Systems” in June 2015. This guidance updates and expands upon information previously used to conduct environmental source assessments for Legionella during outbreak investigations. It also provides a framework for competent professionals to establish a proactive assessment strategy of hazard assessment and longitudinal monitoring of building water systems. The intent is that they use it to develop evaluation and assessment strategies for Legionella and shift to a proactive approach that may reduce the impact this disease has on public health.

Until recently, residential buildings lagged in green certification because the cost-benefit analysis is different than for office buildings.  ANSI approval of the National Green Building Standard (NGBS) opened the door to cost-effective, credible, marketable green certification for homes and apartments. The green housing market is poised to double from what it was in 2013—going from $37 billion (27% of market) to $90 billion (up to 33% of market) by 2016. This presentation will describe the NGBS and the NGBS Green certification program, as well as emerging green building trends with the development of the 2015 NGBS sponsored by ICC/ASHRAE/NAHB.

ASHRAE has been a leader in the green and sustainable buildings, developing a variety of “better-than-code” standards, historically focused on commercial building performance.   As part of its increased commitment to residential building performance initiatives, ASHRAE partnered with ICC and NAHB in the revision to the 2012 Residential Green Building Standard.  Drawing from experience with 189.1 and a number of building performance topics, ASHRAE delegates participated in development and deliberations on hundreds of proposed changes to ICC 700.  This presentation will report on how the next edition of ICC 700 aligns with ASHRAE’s mission, technical rigor and professional standards requirements.

The National Green Building Standard is unique among sustainable building standards in that it has a pre-qualification process for materials and products that contribute towards points within the standard.  The benefit of pre-qualification for builders is that it streamlines the writing specifications and verification of compliance with the standard.   The benefit for a manufacturer is demonstration of product benefits.  This presentation will describe the pre-qualification process and the technical data needed for validation.

In order to increase the impact of Standard 189.1, the IgCC and LEED, an MOU was signed in 2014 by AIA, ASHRAE, ICC, IES and USGBC to align these three efforts. Since then, these organizations have been working to implement the MOU. At the same time, the Standard 189.1 committee has been revising the 2014 standard to reflect new technical information, including the consideration of approaches used in the IgCC that are different from those in 189.1. This presentation will clarify what these organizations have agreed to and how the 189.1 committee is working to support that agreement.

Standard 189.1 energy performance compliance requirements include energy cost performance and CO₂ emissions compared to a baseline building using energy modeling rules and other underlying assumptions.  This approach was intended to account for the economic interests of the owner as well as the environmental impact of the proposed building while being sensitive to local conditions and building characteristics.  This presentation will review the underlying assumptions, key variables and metrics, and rationale for selection of performance requirements that differ from those in the 2015 version of IgCC.

The IgCC Sustainable Building Technology Committee concluded that the needs of the environment, the jurisdictions adopting the IgCC, building owners and design teams would be best served by a methodology for calculating building energy use that, as closely as possible, reflected the actual energy use of the building and the emissions resulting from that energy use. This presentation will discuss the process and rationale that led IgCC to adopt the zEPI scalar as the energy efficiency compliance metric and calculate source energy and regional emissions based on the EPA e-GRID database of power generation environmental characteristics.

Healthcare facilities managers are already required under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Conditions of Participation to identify and manage all facilities related risks to patients and staff.  Many facilities have already adopted an “all hazards” approach that uses an interdisciplinary team to identify and categorize risks from a probability and severity perspective, and to manage those risks deemed most critical through appropriate mitigation strategies.  Development of a risk matrix and a mitigation prioritization strategy will be discussed.  Additionally, resource requirements and the methodology to demonstrate compliance to activities having jurisdiction will be described.

Infection prevention programs provide internal expertise to assist in preventing the spread of infection within health care facilities among patients, staff and visitors.  Examples of Legionella outbreaks associated with health care will be provided to illustrate potential risk factors within these settings.  To provide a broader perspective beyond Legionella on causative pathogens for health care associated infections (HAIs), the current incidence of HAIs in the U.S. will be described.  An illustration of how the risk assessment process and water management plan outlined in Standard 188 may assist health care organizations in prospectively preventing infection occurrence also will be discussed.

It is a common misconception that the expertise of the industrial hygienist (IH) on a water management team is solely to collect environmental data. The education, training and experience of the IH places him/her in a unique position to contribute to the design of the risk assessment process and sampling plans, and assist in the identification, implementation, and evaluation of control measures. The presenter will provide a review of considerations for all phases of the risk assessment process including design, implementation, interpretation, and control. “Lessons learned” will be presented using examples from water risk assessments in actual healthcare settings.

The U.S., joined by Canada and Mexico, have offered proposals to revise the Montreal Protocol to include a phase down of HFC refrigerants. It is believed that such an amendment would allow the orderly reduction of high GWP materials which are potentially negatively impacting climate change. In addition, Australia has implemented a GWP control mechanism that has since been rescinded. We will discuss and compare these two concepts.

In response to the U.S. EPA SNAP “De-listing” rule and in support of the North American Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) has released a proposed rule to gradually reduce HFC use in Canada over the next 20 years, and to disallow the use of specific HFCs for some applications that are important to the HVAC&R industry on a shorter term schedule.  This presentation will provide a summary of the proposed rule, examine the implications to certain product sectors and to the availability of refrigerants in the market place, and make comparisons to other HFC reduction schemes.

The Japanese government is taking a bottom up approach to reduce HFC consumption in Japan that is opposite of the EU approach. This presentation will explain the merit of this approach. In addition, it introduces how Japanese HVAC&R related academia and industries are cooperating to respond to the new regulations. In Japan, implementation of lower GWP HFCs already started in mass production base from smaller products. The total sales of products with A2L refrigerants exceeded 5 million. The presentation will also include projected HFC consumption reduction impacts.

ASHRAE as well as other professional organizations have been working with the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) to revise CSA448 such that it will be a viable standard in the United States as well as Canada.  The revised standard will be entitled, “Design and Installation of Ground Source Heat Pump Systems for Commercial and Residential Buildings.” This presentation will provide an overview of the standard and will discuss the benefits to ASHRAE members on both sides of the border.

Standards are written by a group of knowledgeable individuals from industry, academia, or other similar sources.   Standards are adopted under ridged rules set forth by ANSI or other nationally recognized certifying body.  Eventually standards find their way into code formulated by independent code authorities. These codes are adopted by the regulatory authorities. We, as engineers, must design to both the standards and the code.  What happens if standards and code conflict?  What is the general impact of this conflict?  What do we, as engineers, need to do?  How do we change or modify the code?

In every major American city, buildings account for the majority of energy use and air pollution – even more than the transportation or industrial sectors. If cities want to be more competitive and more resilient against unexpected energy and economic challenges, they must find ways to boost the efficiency of their building stock. This presentation will unveil the investments that Orlando is making to optimize our use of natural resources, an overview of City Energy Project initiatives, and share what the City of Orlando is working on to become a national leader in energy efficiency for new and existing buildings.

In every major American city, buildings account for the majority of energy use and air pollution – even more than the transportation or industrial sectors. If cities want to be more competitive and more resilient against unexpected energy and economic challenges, they must find ways to boost the efficiency of their building stock. This presentation will unveil the investments that Orlando is making to optimize our use of natural resources, an overview of City Energy Project initiatives, and share what the City of Orlando is working on to become a national leader in energy efficiency for new and existing buildings.

Demand-controlled kitchen ventilation (DCKV) had gained traction and market adoption within the world of commercial foodservice, stimulated by recent changes to Standard 90.1 and Title 24. Similarly, energy management systems (EMS) have secured renewed interest by major restaurant chains in North America. While both systems derive savings from the HVAC piece of the “energy pie”, they compete for a piece of the capital budget. At this stage in product offerings, there has been little integration of the two technologies. Based on three field studies, this presentation discusses the benefits of combining the two technologies within one platform.

This seminar will discuss the present and future roles that Demand Controlled Kitchen Ventilation (DCKV) systems play as a viable energy efficiency measure in food service facilities. It will be presented within the framework of Standard 90.1, California’s Title 24, the IMC and UMC.

There are several recent and upcoming changes to codes and testing standards that impact the performance, installation and commissioning of commercial kitchen ventilation equipment. This session will focus on the relationship between various UL test standards and code requirements, and address some of the frequently asked technical questions received by UL. This session will also focus on the significant changes in UL Standard ANSI/UL710, “Exhaust Hoods for Commercial Cooking Equipment”, that were published in 2012, and have an upcoming effective date of September 2017.

The SSPC recently completed revisions, updates, public review and submission for publication of ASHRAE Standard 154, Ventilation for Commercial Cooking Operations.