Your Home

As you read the daily paper before leaving for work, you see an article about a local homeowner who is experiencing indoor air quality problems in his home. You breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that your home was built to requirements set in the only nationally recognized indoor air quality standard developed solely for residences.

Guidance in ASHRAE Standard 62.2 helps make sure that the air inside your home is clean and safe, without adding significant costs.  It limits sources of pollutants and requires a small amount of mechanical ventilation to provide dilution for unavoidable contaminants such as dust mites, pollen and cleaning products. The standard ensures that HVAC and other systems work together to effectively ventilate homes and minimize sources of indoor pollution.

“The standard is just good, basic common sense,” a researcher in the field of air flow and infiltration, said. “People need fresh air. The standard tells how to provide it and how to avoid other common problems.”

Your monthly energy bill arrives, reflecting the energy-savings measures in your home.
 ASHRAE Standard 90.2 sets appropriate cost-effective energy efficiency levels for insulation and windows in homes and smaller apartment buildings.

The standard also addresses using energy-efficient heating and air conditioning equipment.  When home and small apartments are built to the standard, people are more likely to save money on utility bills.  An added benefit is reduced demand on the natural resources required to provide the gas and electricity to serve these buildings.

It’s time to change the filter for your air-conditioning or heating system. You’ll see ASHRAE’s name on most of the filters at your local home improvement store. Filters are tested in accordance with ASHRAE Standard 52.2, which establishes minimum efficiencies for filters and provides information on the performance of specific filters, allowing designers and operators to choose filters based on the contaminants found in a building.

Changing filters as recommended by manufacturers ensures that coils, equipment and distribution systems are kept clean, which improves system efficiency and equipment longevity and reduces cleaning and maintenance cost. It also reduces airborne particulate matter, which lowers housekeeping costs and exposure of occupants.

ASHRAE’s name also can be found on the water heater in your home because the manufacturer tested the equipment according to one of ASHRAE’s applicable equipment performance rating standards.

Your Office

It may be cold outside, but your office is a comfortable 70°F, thanks to ASHRAE’s Standard 55. The standard specifies the combinations of indoor thermal environmental factors and personal factors that will produce thermal environmental conditions acceptable to 80 percent or more of the occupants. These environmental factors include temperature, thermal radiation, humidity and air speed, while personal factors are activity and clothing.

To be specific, temperatures in the winter should range from 68-74°F and 73-79°F in the summer, according to the standard. In addition to being comfortable, you also can be assured that your office has good indoor air quality, designed according to requirements in ASHRAE’s Standard 62.1. The standard plays an important role around the world in providing for occupants’ well-being by improving indoor air quality. The standard provides guidance for the design and operation of HVAC systems for a range of building types and functions. It includes minimum requirements for maintaining a safe, healthy and comfortable indoor environment for building occupants.

Despite its hundreds of computers, lights, copiers, and other office equipment, your office is energy efficient. ASHRAE’s Standard 90.1 sets design requirements for the efficient use of energy in buildings. The requirements apply to the building envelope, distribution of energy, systems and equipment for auxiliaries, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, water heating, electric power and lighting.

Since being developed in response to the energy crisis in the 1970s, Standard 90.1 now influences building designs worldwide. It has become the basis for building codes and the standard for building design and construction throughout the United States.

The standard is referenced in the Federal Energy Policy Act, meaning state building codes must meet or exceed the standard’s requirements.

Shopping, traveling, etc.

When you reach for that gallon of milk or carton of ice cream, you have ASHRAE to thank for ensuring that your food remains cold and fresh. ASHRAE Standard 72 ensures that when manufacturers design and develop their refrigerated cases, the performance can be reported to the user of the case accurately. 

The grocery stores then know that they can store food products in a safe manner, while keeping energy use as low as possible.  If a refrigerated case for storage or display of fresh meat, for example, is not tested according to ASHRAE Standard 72, the manufacturer could publish product literature that would make it appear that the case uses much less energy.  When the case is purchased, the grocery store could find that the case does not hold meat at the temperatures necessary to keep it safe.  The store would then have to run the case much colder, increasing the energy use and prices of products.

As you ease into the spa at your vacation resort, you want to relax – not worry about Legionnaires’ Disease. And since your spa was designed based on recommendations in ASHRAE’s Guideline 12, you don’t have to. Legionnaires’ Disease occurs when people breathe mists from water sources contaminated with Legionella bacteria. ASHRAE’s guideline provides practical recommendations on minimizing the dissemination of Legionella bacteria in building water systems.

“The bottom line is we can actually prevent illness and save lives,” said an engineer who helped write the guideline. “This guideline provides the engineering community with an opportunity to make a positive contribution to public health.”

When you step aboard the cruise ship for your vacation, be assured that the ship’s HVAC&R systems are working fine if they are operating in accordance with ASHRAE Standard 151.

Such field tests are essential to operators and to design engineers, manufacturers and installers to better enable them to evaluate the results of the system’s performance and installation techniques under actual operating conditions.

ASHRAE: The Future

ASHRAE volunteers are working on several other standards that will improve quality of life in a variety of settings, including planes and hospitals.

ASHRAE’s proposed standard 161, Air Quality Within Commercial Aircraft, will improve air quality on airplanes and become a uniform guideline for the industry’s use. The standard defines the requirements for air quality in aircraft and specifies methods for measurement and testing in order to establish compliance with the standard.

Standard 160P, Design Criteria for Moisture Control in Buildings, will help predict, mitigate and reduce moisture damage to buildings, depending on climate construction type and system operation.

Standard 170P, Ventilation of Health Care Facilities, will provide control for comfort, infection and odor in health care facilities, including hospitals, nursing homes and outpatient facilities. The standard takes into consideration chemical, physical and biological airborne contaminants that can affect delivery of medical care to patients, the convalescence of patients and the safety of health care workers and visitors.