Books and Guides | Position Documents | White Papers and Reports | Miscellaneous
Books and Guides
Advanced Energy Design Guides (AEDGs)
All of the titles in the well-received and highly poplular Advanced Energy Design Guide series are available for free download.
To learn more: AEDG guides
BIM Guide
Using common information in the form of a building model for all analysis related to building performance is critical to ensure a holistic, manageable, and verifiable result. Building Information Modeling is focused on eliminating significant amounts of redundant and wasted effort currently embedded in the design, construction, and operations of facilities due to the lack of software interoperability. To learn more:
BIM Guide
Design Guidance for Education Facilities: Prioritization for Advanced Indoor Air Quality, Version 2.0
This document provides guidance to owners, operators, designers, and professional service providers on how to best implement indoor air quality (IAQ) improvements, including risk mitigation strategies, in educational facilities. It will also help facilitate discussion between designers and stakeholders, identify minimum recommendations, and discuss further considerations to improve IAQ and reduce the transmission risk of infectious pathogens and other contaminants of concern. This document will be updated to further align with developing information. It is not intended to replace or supersede other documents, including, but not limited to, other standards such as ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.1 or the proposed ASHRAE Standard 241. Instead, this guidance is intended to illustrate principles and practical considerations within the existing framework to mitigate risk. HVAC professionals should use this guidance in conjunction with all relevant bylaws, codes, and standards.
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Indoor Air Quality Guide: Best Practices for Design, Construction and Commissioning
The Indoor Air Quality Guide: Best Practices for Design, Construction and Commissioning is designed for architects, design engineers, contractors, commissioning agents, and all other professionals concerned with indoor air quality. The summary document is available for free download. To learn more about the Indoor Air Quality Guide: Best Practices for Design, Construction and Commissioning
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Refrigeration Commissioning Guide: Best Practices for Commercial and Industrial Systems
The first of its kind, Refrigeration Commissioning Guide for Commercial and Industrial Systems provides guidance to owners and managers of commercial and industrial facilities that use refrigeration systems to help ensure that project requirements are met and owners’ expectations are achieved. Using this Guide will help achieve cost-effective and cost-efficient refrigeration systems for new projects, expansions, remodels, and existing systems that simply need a tune-up. This Guide was developed through cooperation of ASHRAE and the U.S. Department of Energy. In an effort to promote building energy efficiency, ASHRAE and DOE are making this Guide available for download (PDF) at no charge.
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Decarbonizing Building Thermal Systems: A Guide for Applying Heat Pumps and Beyond
Developed in partnership with the Department of Energy through NREL, this guide focuses on how heat pumps should be applied and how they should be operated in commercial and multifamily buildings to support decarbonization. The guide provides guidance to design engineers on various heat pump-specific design elements including application and sizing in different climate zones, system configuration and refrigerants, electrical requirements, and control and operation strategies for space and hot water applications. The Heat Pump Application and Operation Guide will represent a critical resource to building designers and operators to support widespread adoption of this building decarbonization strategy. Stay tuned as the guide becomes expanded in 2025!
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Building Performance Standards: A Technical Resource Guide
The Building Performance Standards: A Technical Resource Guide is guide is intended to provide technical basis and resources to policymakers, building owners, facility managers, design professionals and ASHRAE members when developing and implementing a Building Performance Standard (BPS). The guide focuses on larger building types and scope of BPS as developed by leading U.S. cities and states. The guide covers BPS aimed toward reducing building operating energy use and resulting emissions and does not cover embodied energy or carbon, which will be addressed by The Whole Life Carbon Guide for Building Systems.
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Position Documents
A Position Document is a Board of Directors-approved document expressing the views of the Society on a specific topic pertaining to public policy. Topics include Airborne Illnesses, Environmental Tobacco Smoke, Climate Change, and several others.
To learn more:
Position Documents
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White Papers and Reports
ASHRAE Datacom Series
ASHRAE TC 9.9 has published white papers and technical bulletins to expand on some of the topics covered by the 14 books in ASHRAE Datacom Series. Visit www.ashrae.org/datacenterguidance to learn more about these free downloads available from TC 9.9.
BACnet Secure Connect
This white paper discusses a proposed new technology called “BACnet Secure Connect (BACnet/SC)” that centers on exclusively using accepted IT best practices to create secure communications connections between building automation devices both across the cloud and within facilities.
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Classification of Laboratory Ventilation Design Levels
This document provides background information to help classify, design, and operate LACSs according to the LVDL table included in the appendix (Table3). The table describes criteria, design attributes, and operating specifications associated with each LVDL. The purpose of the LVDL classification system and Table A are to foster communication between stakeholders when evaluating the protective capability of an existing LACS or during discussions about design, construction, and operation of a new LACS intended to manage and control airborne chemical hazards.
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Damp Buildings, Human Health, and HVAC Design
This report summarizes dampness-related health risks in buildings as understood within ASHRAE. It provides simple-to-recognize symptoms of dampness, describes its capacity to increase the probability of negative health effects, and provides suggestions that HVAC system designers can apply to minimize such risks. The text also suggests monitoring instruments and threshold values that can provide early warning of trends that, if allowed to continue, could eventually result in health-relevant dampness.
Preparing your home in advance can help you, your family, and other household members stay physically and mentally healthy during an outbreak. This white paper describes strategies for protecting household members from infection and for isolating those who develop the infectious disease or have a high risk of severe outcomes if they become infected. This paper also describes the supplies you might need, the information you should gather about your home and its heating and cooling systems, and other actions you can take before or during an outbreak to minimize your household’s risk of illness.
Humidity Control Events in Perioperative Care Areas
This white paper provides a protocol for perioperative care areas when mechanical systems are unable to maintain relative humidity (RH) within the desired range that has been established by the facility for their specific operations. For the purpose of this paper, a humidity control event occurs when the RH is above or below the established facility RH range.
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Supplier White Papers
These white papers are sponsored by advertisers and may include commercial material. However, they cover a wide range of topics and may be of interest to users.
To learn more:
White Papers, sponsored by advertisers
HVAC Design of Compounding Pharmacies
This white paper provides recommendations for the HVAC design of compounding pharmacies located within health care facilities. This document aims to coordinate between United States Pharmacopeia (USP) publications and ANSI/ASHRAE/ASHE Standard 170, Ventilation of Health Care Facilities, to provide consolidated design parameters for engineers.
This white paper will cover the major areas of concern for HVAC design engineers, from basics on the International Standardization Organization’s (ISO) classifications to humidity and temperature control within the compounding spaces. These discussions are meant to be informative. Always reference the local state boards of pharmacies having jurisdictions responsible for each individual project for the most up-to-date requirements of compounding pharmacies within a health care setting.
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Miscellaneous
ASHRAE Journal Reader Service Card
Free information on the latest products & services in ASHRAE Journal is available with one click. The reader service card provides the opportunity to request information from new products chosen by editors as well as advertised products in each issue. To learn more:
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Consumer Center
The Consumer Center assists homeowners and others seeking answers to basic questions regarding heating and air-conditioning as well as indoor air quality and energy efficiency. To learn more:
Consumer Center
Earthquake Protection Bulletin
Earthquake Protection is a useful free download of an 8 pages which can be used to help prevent the effects of earthquakes on mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems. To learn more:
Earthquake Protection Bulletin
e-Newsletter
The HVAC&R Industry is available to anyone interested in staying up-to-date with the latest news in the HVAC&R industry. It is sent to ASHRAE members but is also available to the general public.
Learn more and subscribe for free.
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Listserves
ASHRAE provides subscriptions to a variety of Listserves to enable members and others to stay up to date with the latest news, publication offerings, standards news, and various other Society activities.
Subscribe to a Listserve here.
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