ASHRAE Studies Performance Measurement, Carbon Metrics

August 17, 2007 // Published as a news service by IHS

ASHRAE, the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) will collaborate to provide guidance on measuring and reporting building performance.

The group is examining what should be measured and in what way to consistently achieve high-performance buildings over time.

The goal is to provide a consistent method of measuring, expressing and comparing energy use, water use and indoor environmental quality – i.e., indoor air quality (IAQ), thermal comfort, acoustics and lighting - of buildings. Baseline criteria will be established in each of these areas.

"The design community needs a method for evaluating building performance that is objective, consistent and repeatable across a wide variety of building types and systems," said Lynn Bellenger, chair of the ASHRAE Technology Council, which is overseeing both studies.

"This undertaking will produce procedures and benchmark performance that designers can use to evaluate their projects and gauge the impact of sustainable design on actual building performance."

The initial phase of the study, an extensive literature evaluation, is set for completion on Sept. 1, 2007.

In other research, ASHRAE is working to provide measures of the carbon emission equivalents of the gas, electricity and other fuel energy used in buildings.

While first order estimates are available from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tools, the conversion factors need to be known by region and by time of day, including benchmarks. This would allow, according to ASHRAE, accurate tools to be made available to designers to evaluate the carbon footprint of their proposed designs.

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