ASHRAE Shares Energy Savings Efforts

December 29, 2006 // Published as a news service by IHS

ASHRAE is working with the American Institute of Architects, the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America and the U.S. Green Building Council to develop a series of Advanced Energy Design Guides for the commercial building sector.

The ASHRAE 2007 Winter Meeting, set for Jan. 29, will serve as a forum to provide an update on some of the measures that have demonstrated energy reductions.

John Mitchell, P.E., is chairing a scoping committee set up to study ways to achieve building designs as close as is feasible to net zero energy use, defined as "a building which, on an annual basis, uses no more energy than is provided by the building's on-site renewable energy sources."

The study will provide the basis for the development of Advanced Energy Design Guides to go 50% and beyond minimum standards for energy use.

"The goal of a 50% approach to net zero energy use, on either a site or source basis, is feasible," Mitchell said. "There are no apparent technological barriers to achieve the desired energy reductions, but aggressive energy conservation strategies and energy generation are needed."

Achieving the 2010 goal will acquire changes in design practice in which the design team converts energy strategies into building plans, sections, details and construction, ASHRAE said.

The completed scoping study identified measures that achieve significant energy savings. Some of the measures identified:

• Improved daylighting and electrical illumination systems.
• Reduction of parasitic power requirements in air and water distribution systems.
• Separate treatment of ventilation and internal thermal loads.
• Improved delivery of conditioning to where it is needed.
• Improved part load performance of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) components.
• Water loop heat pump systems.

More information about the Advanced Energy Design Guide series is available on the ASHRAE Web site at http://www.ashrae.org/aedg.

Scheduled ASHRAE 2007 Winter Meeting seminars and speakers include:

• Net Zero Energy Building Ideas - The Path Toward Net Zero Energy Use, John W. Mitchell, Ph.D., P.E., University of Wisconsin, Madison.
• Architectural Perspective as a Bridge to Engineering, Jeff Levine, American Institute of Architects, New York, N.Y.
• What Has Been Done? Case Study Review, David Hewitt, New Buildings Institute, White Salmon, Wash.
• Integrated Design Process - Making it Possible, Jeff Levine, American Institute of Architects, New York, N.Y.
• Daylighting - Advanced Lighting, Daylighting and Controls, Stephen Selkowitz, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, Calif.
• Distribution Systems - Air, Wayne Reedy, Carrier Corp., Indianapolis, Ind.
• Distribution Systems - Water, Stephen Kavanaugh, Ph.D., University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, and Harvey Sachs, Ph.D., American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Washington, D.C.
• HVAC/Ventilation, Michael Brandemuehl, Ph.D., University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo.

Source: American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers Inc. (ASHRAE).