By Duane Jonlin, FAIA, Member ASHRAE
The Format and Compliance (F&C) subcommittee of SSPC 90.1 (arguably the most exciting subcommittee in all ASHRAE) tackles the gnarly issues of the day. Not long ago, an uninvited and hard-driving outsider leaned into an F&C meeting and demanded: “Dudes, when is a floor not a floor?” Quickly recovering its composure, the committee dove right to the heart of the issue, which as it turns out subtly revolves around the difference between “floor” and “floor.”
F&C’s Italics sub-sub-committee (the ISSC) leapt into action, sorting out each instance of “floor,” generally defined as that bottom, horizontal part of the building envelope under the conditioned space (but not touching the ground) from “floor”—your dictionary word—as in “conditioned floor area” or “you have the floor.” Through grueling late-night sessions, they examined each and every instance, and in a final burst of caution, rechristened that italicized use of the term as “envelope floor.” (It must be mentioned that another outsider, rolling her eyes, then commandeered the F&C laptop and cleaned up a bit of a word-processing mess, but we digress…) Shifting scenes to an SSPC floor debate a few weeks later, the subcommittee emerged with an overwhelming vote of approval, and F&C retired victorious to the hotel bar.
Alas, they were not fated to bask long in that warm glow because at that moment someone set down his frosty beverage and wondered aloud, waving his now-free hands as air quotes, “What’s the difference between a ‘building official’ and an ‘authority having jurisdiction’? Don’t they mean exactly the same thing?” Laptops were unsheathed, fists smashed down on the table and the debate took off. Eventually, the “none of the above” faction got the upper hand and the term “code official” was duly proposed to replace all the others in a presentation to the full SSPC, in order to match the latest IECC terminology. This effort, however, was quickly slapped down by a well-organized pro-AHJ group that had seemingly emerged from nowhere. The mood back at the bar this time was somber, until someone pointed out that the specific term used didn’t actually matter, as long as the whole code used the same term. Deftly completing a search-and-replace maneuver, F&C marched back into the next SSPC 90.1 meeting, heads high, with a revised proposal to consolidate instead around the term “authority having jurisdiction,” using just the acronym AHJ. And thus it came to pass that their bitter defeat was transformed into a victory—AHJ is now enshrined as the official term of art.
Glasses were once again raised, but had barely touched lips when one member, gazing into the distance and leaning back in his chair, asked “Gentlemen, what exactly is a wall, anyway?”
Battles may be won or lost, but F&C soldiers on, ready to confront the next crisis.