Humidity is often associated to negative concepts like mold and sicknesses related to high levels of moisture in indoor environments and this invariably leads to talks and solutions for reducing it tout court. But, is it really correct to reduce it with no minimum limit? This session sheds some light on the need of a minimum level of humidity for health, well-being and productivity.

First time at an ASHRAE Conference? Been coming for years, but still confused? What is a TC? What is a Standing Committee? Who can attend what? What is the AHR Expo? And why is all this happening at once? This crash course provides you with an introduction to all the ASHRAE Conference activities, explains how you can get involved, and allows you to ask questions to experienced attendees.

This session covers the fundamentals surrounding water flow measurement in hydronic systems. Why, how, what. Hydronic systems (chilled water, heating hot water, or condenser water) are effectively a HVAC transmission. Pumps, pipes and valves make-up the envelop and their effectiveness can be measured by the volume flow rate of water in the pipe. We measure flow rate through pressure drop - such as valves, orifices, venturis, equipment losses; by pump curve; and with throughput measurement equipment such as ultrasonic and magnetic meters. The merits and practicalities of each are covered here.

This seminar discusses the use of desiccant dehumidification systems in yielding better indoor air quality. This session also includes information on the significant energy savings to be gained with the provided systems. The three speakers give insight and data to demonstrate the advantages. They discuss the health and IAQ benefits that will occur with these systems and the energy savings aspects. The presentations also provide descriptions of field installed tests for energy and IAQ performance.

In the U.S. water and energy are inescapably linked – both at large scale national and state electrical and water distribution systems, and at building scale systems that trade off on site electrical and water usage. These relationships are sometimes complex, but this seminar aims to deliver a basic understanding of the key issues at play with our current infrastructure and industry practices

Evaporative cooling and the integration of water evaporation into vapor-compression air conditioning are key components of the water energy nexus. This seminar summarizes a body of current work that includes a direct analysis of the water consumption versus energy savings, a recent ASHRAE standard on evaporative pre-coolers for rooftop packaged equipment, numerous field studies of hybrid vapor-compression/evaporative-cooling equipment, and case studies of designs where the inclusion of indirect evaporative cooling reduced on-site water use.

Organizations are choosing to commit to an increasing number of climate and sustainability goals and policies. How can we plan new facilities and modernizations to meet the unknown needs of the future? See how two organizations are meeting this challenge. The first speaks to the lessons learned from a recently completed $1B “hospital of the future”. The second speaker addresses how her private University campus’ new Climate Action Plan has challenged her design teams to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. See how both facilities are leveraging their BAS systems to validate their ongoing performance against policy goals.

With the increasing discussion of the water energy nexus, the industry is responding with innovative technologies to improve onsite water and energy use. This seminar highlights new technology being developed to optimize performance as well as proven technology that is gaining new traction as greater attention is focused on this area.

This session discusses increased risk of fires in commercial kitchens employing solid fuel cooking, resulting deposits of highly combustible creosote deposits in exhaust systems. Case studies will show how solid fuel cooking fires challenge conventional in-hood fire suppression systems and increase the need for strict adherence to code and standards requirements, requirements for clearance to combustible construction, and the need for increased frequency and aggressiveness of duct cleaning. These points will be illustrated by real world examples of fires, fire system performance, issues with code requirements for clearances, and how defined maintenance programs and proper inspections can reduce fire hazards.

CHW pipe insulation systems sometimes fail due to long-term moisture accumulation, particularly in unconditioned spaces in humid environments. The first speaker will describe a case study of several school buildings which suffered from severe mold growth and was successfully remediated. A second speaker will describe a case study of a building that experienced extensive CHW pipe insulation failures and was successfully remediated. A third speaker will summarize the findings of laboratory tests on insulated cold pipes in ASHRAE RP-1646. Finally, a fourth speaker will address the results of computerized hygrothermal analyses simulating four different CHW pipe insulation systems.

Building information modeling (BIM) is a software-based method to enhance the efficiency of integrated building design including HVAC load calculations. This seminar looks at several different methods of performing HVAC load calculations on the ASHRAE Headquarters building. One method involves performing HVAC load calculations inside the BIM authoring software tool. Another method involves exporting the building information to a standard schema and importing that same information into another vendor's HVAC load calculation tool. This seminar examines the advantages and disadvantages along with the struggles of using these tools to perform comprehensive load calculations.

Variable speed drives are increasingly being applied to chillers with both positive displacement compressors and centrifugal compressors. In addition, advancements in variable speed drive technology are continually enabling enhancements in chiller component design and control. From enabling compressors to be designed for optimum speed to eliminating traditional capacity control mechanisms such as inlet guide vanes to hybrid systems with drives on some compression elements, variable speed drives are revolutionizing chiller designs.

Faults happen. They can occur in unitary air-conditioning equipment and cause it to perform below its expected, rated or designed value, leaving owners/operators disappointed. Examples of faults include coil fouling, loss of refrigerant charge, excessive duct flow resistance, economizer faults, etc. This seminar shows results of recent groundbreaking research projects focusing on the effects of faults on unitary equipment, and presents new methods for modeling the effects of those faults. Attendees of the seminar will be prepared to account for these effects when designing, planning maintenance, or predicting building energy performance.

This seminar provides an overview of several building energy software programs for commercial buildings (including officers, schools, and data centers) in both the U.S. and China. These programs were developed to collect energy data, provide enhanced visualization, perform energy analytics, benchmark and identify savings opportunities, quantify savings impacts, and support an ongoing commissioning process in actual facilities. Several real-world project examples are provided to illustrate how these tools will be used and what benefits they bring to the industry.

This session presents case studies to provide guidance for developing energy models for laboratory buildings. The presenters demonstrate real life examples of energy savings using demand based ventilation and the implementation of wind responsive VAV exhaust systems in laboratories. Finally, it addresses why the actual energy consumption of laboratories may differ from the original model.

This session provides a thorough overview and in-depth analysis of the air side corrosion behavior on air-to-refrigerant heat exchangers. This includes fundamental design side considerations for both round tube and microchannel tubes, as well as applied lessons from ongoing research.

In the overall facility operations and maintenance (O&M) picture, energy management plays an integral role in proper facility management. This role is increasingly valued with a push in the public and private sectors for reduced energy consumption, leading to reduced facility costs and, in the case of equipment replacement, reduced payback periods. Effective energy management in O&M requires calculated and focused strategies with a proper investment of time, funding, and personnel. These strategies and their energy-saving impacts will be discussed by seminar speakers who have worked in institutional settings, providing perspectives from the United States and in an international setting.

As current natural gas heating units approach their efficiency limits, what will be next? Sorption systems (including absorption and adsorption) can provide gas heating efficiencies well above 100% by extracting heat from the ambient. They are rapidly expanding into water and space heating systems, especially in Europe. The IEA Annex 43 has the goal to widen use of fuel driven heat pumps, and in this seminar, member countries report on recent field studies and development of international rating standards that can help sorption technologies accelerate their rapid expansion into residential and commercial space and water heating markets.

OPEN SESSION: No badge required; no PDHs awarded; presented during the TC's meeting. Successful engineers require many communication skills. This seminar workshop focuses on the value and importance of good writing skills for both experienced engineers and YEA, the requirement as engineers to communicate technical ideas and data, and how to achieve improved writing. Sample writings will be used to demonstrate writing techniques.

The lifecycle of a new construction project can last several years. Initial goals are set by the team with high aspirations but are often deviated from as the process continues. Tracking and monitoring the project’s energy goals through design deliverables, energy analysis and commissioning reports is crucial for adhering to objectives. However, what happens when unforeseen issues occur? Does the team achieve the owner’s aspirations? This presentation reviews achieving client goals while working through obstacles, from design inception through occupied building. Working together as a high performance team, performance goals can be achieved and confirmed through post-occupancy measurement and verification.

With a focus on emerging trends in building automation systems, three Young Engineers in ASHRAE members will highlight where they see the control industry heading. According to many experts, smart, interconnected building technologies are the next major step in the evolution of buildings. With the increase of the prevalence of the “Internet of Things” and the falling costs of sensors and wireless technology, the smart building technology and implementation market has a huge potential. Topics covered include predictive energy modeling for energy dashboards, functional control testing through injection and stimulation, and connected commissioning methods.

The components of lighting heat gains are a significant contributor to space cooling load in buildings. These components include the fraction of convective and radiative heat gains, as well as the fraction of conditioned space and plenum space heat gains. Relevant data for the LED lighting heat gain is sparse. As the LED technology and application are rapidly growing, the need to identify LED lighting heat gain becomes highly demanded. This seminar summarizes the findings of ASHRAE RP-1681, in which 14 commercially available LED lighting luminaries’ heat gain distributions were determined through systematically designed experiments.

This session describes combined heat and power as a robust, efficient, economical and clean solution for critical infrastructure, microgrids and resiliency.

Measuring progress toward achieving net zero energy buildings can be difficult. Performance metrics such as energy use index and energy rating index will provide misleading information if they are insensitive to the impact of parameters such as size, process loads, and occupant behavior. This seminar highlights challenges facing popular performance metrics targeted toward net zero buildings. Options for addressing some of these challenges will be described, including lessons learned from an extensive evaluation of airport terminals, and technical approaches such as O&M Index and Index Adjustment Factors to address disparities in ratings caused by geometry and operating assumptions.

This session's theme is moisture, humidity, dampness and what are the differences between them all? The session focuses on the fundamental concepts of moisture management in buildings, discusses common moisture problems and fixes and attempts to describe dampness as it applies to real world situations.

Estimating wire-to-air fan power performance and energy consumption requires inclusion of a number of variables and few other consideration. Power performance varies depending on whether the fan is an independent equipment or connected to other accessories. This seminar focuses on describing and explaining the steps and a standardized method to follow.

Nanomaterials development and application are viewed as an emerging discipline but is that new? Concerns have been raised about exposure to nanomaterials as it presents a unique set of exposure pathways with potentially new benefits and risks. This seminar explores the sources of nanomaterials indoors, their impact on indoor air quality and their associated risks.

Building automation systems are evolving and specifications need to adapt for advances in fault diagnostics, advanced control sequences, smart grid, and methods how to secure them. This session presents the panel’s views on how specifying engineers can improve, secure and enhance new and existing control systems. It highlights efforts of ASHRAE Guideline 13 to stay relevant, include specification language and guidance and provide future specifiers background needed to set the roles and responsibilities without being an expert in those advanced fields. This should be an informative discussion ending with questions to tie it together.

This seminar presents an overview of hydronic control valve sizing with special emphasis on sizing issues which can affect the performance of the control valves. Actual examples of incorrect valve sizing will be shown with an explanation of the problems caused and the solutions required to correct the problems.

ASHRAE and many other societies and governmental organizations have adopted the Architecture 2030 challenge which calls for new buildings to be zero net-energy (ZNE) by the year 2030. This seminar addresses the technical feasibility of meeting this challenge based on recent analysis, including ASHRAE research on the maximum technical potential for achieving low energy buildings (RP-1651), and the on-site renewable energy production potential for typical climates. Data from measured energy performance (utility bills) of recently constructed ZNE buildings will then be compared to the theoretical targets, and the areas of agreement as well as the gaps will be explored.

Electronic project management systems and collaborative editing tools are collaborative programs for business and design professionals. These systems can include document management and retention, project scheduling and communication. The communications can include proposals, budgets, submittals, information requests, timelines, submittals and more. With any new system, training and standardizing procedures for efficiency and sustained usage are important. Additionally, this session covers the ASHRAE selected project management system Basecamp. Including the goals of using Basecamp, where ASHRAE is currently, and what the challenges were. Lastly, a demonstration of the ASHRAE Authoring Portal, a collaborative editing tool is shown, including sample projects.

Specifying the water usage ratio for HVAC equipment is an increasing goal in high performance building designs. This session introduces the concept of saturation indices for heat transfer systems, and demonstrate the tools available for predicting water consumption, water treatment control limits and chemical treatment directives. We will further delve into how the indices can be utilized to develop a successful water treatment program which balance water consumption and equipment life. This seminar provides the engineer, owner and operator with the tools and understanding necessary, for an efficient HVAC system, regardless of local makeup water quality.

The MGM Grand Fire in 1980 created a new thought process and applications on how fire and life safety systems in buildings are addressed. This session provides a description of the 1980 fire and lessons learned as well as an overview of present day fire and life safety codes, especially applications for tall, supertall and Mega-tall buildings.

To familiarize the audience on the critical considerations involved in successful design and performance of hydronic heating systems, specifically incorporating condensing boiler technology, and the effects of proper vs. improper venting and the necessity of water treatment in multi-metal systems.

When buildings are designed the predicted energy performance is often over optimistic and, in many cases, owners and occupants suffer from excessive operational costs with unsustainable buildings. This seminar considers how this performance gap can be practically removed by applying methods that more properly understand the reality of the operating building; the sensible application of data rich building modelling software for lifelong performance and future refurbishment; by unravelling end-user expectation to inform the design and construction of a world-beating basketball arena and, finally, by connecting design with performance. Real projects are used to illustrate the explanations.

The U.S. DOE sponsors 24 industrial assessment centers (IAC). These centers conduct energy audit for small and medium-sized manufacturers to identify site-specific opportunities to improve productivity, reduce waste and save energy through immediate changes in manufacturing processes and equipment and energy systems. This seminar covers an overview of IACs and a typical industrial energy efficiency assessment process. Results of data-mining the recommendations made in over 17,000 assessments will be presented. The basic elements of an industrial control system will be discussed with examples of energy efficiency projects. This seminar also covers a framework for achieving energy and material sustainability.

Significant HVAC energy savings and improvement in IEQ can be achieved if the micro environment around the occupant is controlled rather than the whole room, zone or building. This is enabled by localized personal environmental control systems (PECS). To design and optimize such systems, a detailed understanding of the interactions between PECS and the occupant's micro environment is necessary. These interactions influence the comfort, IEQ and energy savings achievable by PECS. The seminar presents advances in the modeling and control of the personal micro-environment, and to illustrate how these can influence the design of PECS.

The typical HVAC system operates 40% below specified capacity and efficiency once it is installed in a building. During routine maintenance visits, changes in the performance of an HVAC system can be diagnosed in less than seven minutes by recording and comparing seven simple airside field measurements. This test method compares benchmarked data to pinpoint the causes of deterioration in system airflow, economizer performance and duct system functionality and enables detection and surgical correction of the uncovered and often invisible system defects.

CFD is a powerful and efficient tool that provides scientific analysis and images to enhance the design. It is a practical and cost effective method to investigate different design alternatives especially in large industrial and commercial buildings. However, the CFD results should meet some level of accuracy to be used in design process. Some factors like the type of the CFD model, boundary condition set up, mesh dependency, and convergence criteria affect the uncertainty and accuracy. The speakers go through several different industrial applications to show the work flow and importance of uncertainty and validation quality in HVAC industry.

The seminar addresses low-GWP alternative refrigerants and their applications. As regulations and legislation become increasingly more widespread and restrictive, the HVAC&R industry will need to identify viable alternatives for existing refrigerant solutions. This environmentally-driven change is different than past ones since additional constraints are being placed on refrigerants in essence reducing the number of viable single-component solutions. The seminar highlights five papers appearing in ASHRAE’s Science and Technology for the Built Environment November 2016 edition (one dedicated specifically to low-GWP refrigerants.) The presentations focus on low-GWP halocarbon refrigerants containing unsaturated carbon bonds during boiling heat transfer and in system applications.

This session examines challenges in coordinating data extracted from building automation systems with predictions from building energy models. With BEM increasingly informing design decisions, comparison to post-construction performance at the system level becomes key to troubleshooting and tuning. Discrepancies often first noted in whole-building energy use must be traced back to system level sources. Such comparison between BAS and BEM data is hindered by inconsistencies in data organization, naming, grouping and parameters. This issue is examined as a use-case for ASHRAE Guideline 20-2010, Documenting HVAC&R Work Processes and Data Exchange Requirements.

Geothermal heat pump systems have long been known as a leading system choice for energy performance. But in many regions of the world, geothermal is also the best choice for saving water, as it avoids significant operation and water usage from cooling towers used in those regions. Hybrid systems are also sometimes operated with both geothermal loops and cooling towers; these can be operated optimally to save both energy and water.

IT equipment power and cooling trends continue to push the limits in the industry, primarily due to packaging density, high performance computing, and mass scale out deployment. The challenges associated with supporting these increasing trends is further exacerbated with the additional pain points of deploying the associated ‘Back of Rack Ecosystems”, i.e. power and networking solutions. This seminar presents the existing challenges in deploying rack level infrastructure solutions, and the associated best practices and considerations that must be implemented.

Development of urban-scale building energy models is becoming of increased interest for many applications including city-wide energy supply/demand strategies, urban development planning, electrical grid stability, and urban resilience. This seminar has assembled several researchers with capabilities in the field of urban-scale energy models to discuss an overview of the field as well as the data, algorithms, workflow and practical challenges addressed in their applications involving creation of useful models of individual buildings at the scale of a city, urban or metropolitan area.

Natural ventilation offers the promise of more energy efficient, healthier, and more productive commercial buildings. However, most designers and code compliance officials are in agreement that the current prescriptions for natural ventilation contained in ASHRAE Standard 62.1 are inadequate. This session presents some of the work being done by the members of the Natural Ventilation Working Group under SSPC 62.1 in order to open up discussion on potential standard changes to the greater ASHRAE community and present original research done by the group's members.

For many years those seeking LEED certification were required to use the Ventilation Rate Procedure from ASHRAE Standard 62.1 to determine the minimum outdoor air intake flow for mechanical ventilation systems. The IAQ Procedure (IAQP) could not be used even when it could be demonstrated that IAQ would be improved along with reductions in HVAC capital costs and ongoing energy costs. This has changed due to the development of an alternate compliance path for LEED certification that allows the use of the IAQP under a pilot credit. Case studies demonstrating successful application of this pilot credit are presented.

This session highlights the energy use data available and describe what assumptions are used in interpreting the available information. It provides a perspective on the portion of agricultural energy used for the operation of agricultural facilities and particularly what mechanized systems in these facilities are major energy users. The session also demonstrates what information is still needed to effectively evaluate energy use in facilities with building envelopes.

The late, great Yogi Berra once said: "In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. But in practice... there is." The speakers at this seminar agree with Yogi. Using measured data from both dry and humid climates, they show how actual energy and thermal comfort in real-world houses differs from expectations. But beyond the problems, the speakers also show data from specific designs and installation practices that have helped contractors meet and exceed customer expectations with simple, low-cost, reliable equipment instead of whiz-bang, expensive stuff that too often fails to deliver comfort and low energy performance.

A great amount of time and effort is put into the writing of standards. Rigorous procedures ensure the correctness and consensus of those standards. There are tensions among customers, clients, government, researchers, politicians, designers, manufacturers, researchers, installers, commissioning agents, financial controllers and litigators. Low energy, reliability, sustainability, and familiarity are set against costs of manufacture, construction, operation, and general productivity. Does a slavish following of standards prevent or inhibit innovation. Does lazy design result?

Preparing equipment and assemblies for final check-out verification, start-up procedure and proper operation requires a coordinated activity of testing, adjusting, measurement and documentation that will ensure a successful result. This session describes how the commissioning process would be applied to achieve a successful chilled water plant operation needed to comply with the owner's project requirement and the design documents.

This session introduces three different types of buildings. One is a suburb-type Zero-Energy office building, which introduces PV, biomass generation, lithium batteries, a wood-pellet boiler etc. Another is a medium-sized office building, housing an efficient data center and an experimental R&D facility, where cost-effective ITC technology applications are effectively designed and installed. The third is a dormitory for an oil and petroleum company. A gas-fired cogeneration system is also installed to power an electricity, hot water supply, road heating and bath room dryer system. This equipment is well designed around the BCP (business continuity planning) concept.

Development of urban-scale building energy models is becoming of increased interest for many applications including city-wide energy supply/demand strategies, urban development planning, electrical grid stability and urban resilience. This seminar has assembled several researchers with capabilities in the field of urban-scale energy models to discuss an overview of the field as well as the data, algorithms, workflow and practical challenges addressed in their applications involving creation of useful models of individual buildings at the scale of a city, urban or metropolitan area.

The seminar addresses low-GWP alternative refrigerants and their applications. As regulations and legislation become increasingly more widespread and restrictive, the HVAC&R industry will need to identify viable alternatives for existing refrigerant solutions. This environmentally-driven change is different than past ones since additional constraints are being placed on refrigerants in essence reducing the number of viable single-component solutions. The seminar highlights five papers appearing in ASHRAE’s Science and Technology for the Built Environment November 2016 edition (one dedicated specifically to low-GWP refrigerants.) The presentations focus on low-GWP halocarbon refrigerants containing unsaturated carbon bonds during boiling heat transfer and in system applications.

Building energy consumption is a systematic procedure influenced by not only engineering technologies, but also cultural concept, occupant behavior and others. People spend more than 90% of time in buildings and as a result occupant behavior becomes a leading factor that affects building energy consumption. Occupant behavior driven building operation is one critical way to reduce energy consumption in buildings. This seminar aims to highlight current state-of-art research on occupant behavior driven building operation by LBNL, Department of Energy, the University of Texas at San Antonio and Delos Living LLC. This seminar is part of IEA EBC Annex 66 activities.

Sewage water represents an enormous, yet largely untapped resource, that could be used as a heat source and sink for heat pumps providing heating, cooling and hot water to buildings. This seminar presents recent research, development and a project case study of a sewage water heat pump system at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. This system also processes sewage water on site for non-potable uses.

OPEN SESSION: No badge required; no PDHs awarded; presented during the TC's meeting.In this seminar, two speakers share their career path experiences in Building Automation Systems(BAS). The seminar focuses on the different careers within the BAS industry. Chariti Young, Member, Automated Logic Corp. presents, “A Cutting Edge Career in Building Automation Systems”. Jason Beu, The RMH Group, Inc., presents, “Path to a Career in Controls”.

Although ASHRAE historically has not focused on residential HVAC energy use, the residential sector consumes at least as much energy as the commercial sector, and approximately one-fifth of all primary energy in the United States. Three Presidential Fellows will present on ASHRAE's recent endeavors into the residential sector. The session covers how the Residential Ad Hoc Committee became the newly established Residential Building Committee, what purpose the RBC serves, and the importance of residential design in ASHRAE standards, including Standard 100, 62.2, 55, and ICC/ASHRAE Standard 700. They also summarize ASHRAE’s residential market advocacy efforts with government agencies.

Recent research in data center cooling is changing our thinking about designing and operating facilities for maximum efficiency and thermal performance and keeping pace with recent infrastructure changes such as air containment and a move to modular systems. This seminar re-considers PUE and energy efficiency, introduces a counterintuitive approach to containment, reveals recent work in designing for uniform tile airflow and discusses the thermal design implications of new modular systems.

In the land of comfort, educated home owners are changing their thermal expectations from HVAC systems, and contractors are on the front line hunting for the best solutions. Regardless of ducts or pipes, the “migration” of heat takes a basic understanding of what works and what doesn’t. It is not easy to figure out the right design for the application, especially as homes get more efficient. Low-cost ducted systems may not always work right or be the best fit. This seminar looks at best practices for distributing heat in residential air and hydronic systems, including ducted and radiant design options.

ASHRAE’s previous scope is expanding beyond ventilation, heating, cooling and energy. As designs become more integrated, ASHRAE members are seeking standards and guidance related to water use in the build environment, particularly water efficiency and the impacts of water on energy and health. This session introduces ASHRAE standards addressing water in the built environment, particularly Standards 191, 188 and 189.1.

It has long been recognized that design and installation faults have an impact on HVAC system capacity and efficiency. However, the magnitude and consequences of these fault impacts was unknown. This seminar provides insights from a recently concluded four-year investigation that quantifies the consequences of failing to observe the design and installation elements contained within the industry’s HVAC Quality Installation Specifications. It also highlights steps taken in Europe that are relevant to the North American market to reduce residential energy consumption, including deep retrofit strategies and incremental options with large market uptake for overall large impact.

Building energy performance data are essential to benchmarking and target setting. While the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) is the principal resource for this data across the U.S, recent disclosure laws in several cities and states have produced an additional wealth of data. This seminar examines these data sources from the perspective of several programs that collect and analyze them, and explores the challenges and opportunities for their use. Presenters provide program updates and lessons learned from the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s CBECS, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR, and disclosure and benchmarking initiatives in several U.S. cities.

Data collection for measurement and verification for whole building energy performance usually requires one full year of measurement data. ASHRAE RP 1404 developed analysis methodologies for determining reduced time periods for monitoring that would satisfy accuracy levels required for annual energy performance verification. This session highlights the undertaken research, discussing the background of short-term monitoring for long-term prediction, the developed methodology, along with the results and analysis.

Designing an indoor environment with good indoor air quality is often a practice of guess-and-correction which is a lengthy process. This seminar introduces how to achieve the desired IAQ for various indoor environment through various inverse designs. Speakers discuss the concept and methodology of inverse design for IAQ. Then the usage of inverse design is demonstrated through applications for offices and aircraft cabins.

AHRI, ASHRAE, and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) are collaborating to fund vital research that will establish a more robust fact base about the properties and the use of flammable refrigerants. This $5.8 million research program is coordinated by the AHRTI Flammable Refrigerants Committee. This session provides the Society with a summary and status update on these key research projects. The audience can learn the industry’s challenge and efforts towards implementing flammable refrigerants. Open dialogue during the discussion phase will help provide valuable feedback to research teams.

Absorption chillers and heat pumps have gained significant popularity in recent years due to advances in technology and improvements in efficiency and versatility. This session covers a taste of current research in absorption technology, a real world application integrated with renewable energy and a study of overall life cycle economic analysis of absorption systems based on current energy utility rates.

The “Engineer’s Notebook” series in ASHRAE Journal was established in its current form in 2013 with four authors contributing monthly articles on a rotating basis. All four authors are ASHRAE Fellows and senior consulting engineers with more than 100 years of collective practical experience, and the concept of the recurring column is to share with peers what they have learned (sometimes the hard way) and experienced in the course of their careers, along with helpful design tips and tools. In this Seminar, each of the four has chosen their favorite column to date and has adapted it for presentation.

Restaurants are among the buildings with the highest energy and water consumption. But utilities, representing 2% to 6% of the operating cost, are a low priority within the design process due to the lack of “hard” data. The challenge for the designer is to identify efficient technologies that deliver consistent savings that “payback” the incremental cost. Fortunately, energy and water efficiency generally translates to increased performance. The less energy wasted the more available for cooking product! Energy and water efficiency is one of the most practical ways to imbed “green” into the design of a commercial foodservice facility.

Achieving the necessary occupant satisfaction with the built environment is a major focus of engineers. The demand to increase energy efficiency requires more creative methods to maintain the essential thermal comfort needs of the occupants. Energy saving measures, such as natural ventilation and non-uniform environments created by windows, can make prediction of thermal comfort complicated for the designer. SSPC 55 has created tools to improve thermal comfort prediction and account for the effects of natural ventilation. This seminar explores the tools developed for the thermal comfort standard and the areas where natural ventilation applications can be improved.

Health problems related to poor IAQ have appeared more frequently in recent years. Indoor pollutants may be generated indoors or can ingress from the outdoor environment. This seminar presents pollutant source control in a hospital by optimizing the air intake design to avoid helicopter exhaust fume entrainment, and local air quality controls through detailed ventilation design for two industrial facilities to meet the requirements of health and safety legislation. Due to complexity of the IAQ related problems, three-dimensional CFD simulations provide informative calculations and help to understand air flows and particulate concentrations during the design process.

This session provides laboratory designers with up to date information on lab design.

The drive towards high performance buildings has seen energy standards continue to increase their minimum efficiency targets to hydronic equipment. This session explores the recent changes to Standard 90.1-2016 on efficiency targets of hydronic pumps and the upcoming U.S. DOE pump efficiency legislation. A look at the European Union efficiency legislation around hydronic pumping equipment and how they compare to North American levels is presented.

Each refrigerated facility is unique. Due to this, design guidance and system level optimization is rare and difficult especially in the developing world. This ASHRAE research project, co-funded by UNEP and IIAR, has developed a design guide to aid designers, contractors and operators of refrigerated facilities and industrial and commercial refrigeration systems along with the teachers, utilities and policy makers that assist them. This seminar previews the contents and use of this upcoming ASHRAE Special Publication.

Achieving low energy buildings requires optimal usage of energy in different forms, which can be predicted by exergy modeling. This seminar invites experts to introduce how to perform exergy modeling for evaluating different energy systems such as a PV system and a hybrid heating system. The experts will also elaborate the difference between energy modeling and exergy modeling to highlight the unique information obtained from exergy modeling.

This session addresses how the two modeling approaches i.e. Forward Model and Data Driven Model will be put in to practical use. Checking, sustaining and improving the performance of existing buildings are often ignored due to lack of information, system interactions and budget constraints. Energy models can be effectively used to address these issues.

Water and energy management are often separated when addressing resource conservation and system efficiencies. However, energy usage is closely linked to water usage in buildings and other applications in what is commonly known as the water-energy nexus. This seminar presents connections between water and energy management, demonstrating how conserving energy usage can reduce and control water consumption. Collected data will demonstrate that the connection between water and energy is more than a correlation. Case studies will highlight design approaches and operations procedures that strategically manage water and energy consumption as part of a facility resource management plan.

ASHRAE Standard 205: Standard Representation of Performance Simulation Data for HVAC&R and Other Facility Equipment, an upcoming standard, has the potential to revolutionize energy modeling through streamlining of operational performance characteristics for typical HVAC component's including chillers, fans, and unitary DX equipment. This seminar explores the early experience of manufacturers, software developers and energy modelers using this standard.