Standards and Codes: Net-Zero Energy, High-Performance Buildings

Net-Zero Energy, High-Performance Buildings

Standards activities that support this goal are focused on indoor air quality, building heating and cooling, alternative building energy systems, and building controls and communications. Dr. Shyam Sunder serves on the Board of Directors of the Sustainable Building (SB) Alliance, a non-profit, non-partisan international network of universities, research centers and technical assessment organizations that is intended to accelerate the international adoption of SB practices through the promotion of shared methods of building performance assessment and rating. The SB Alliance initiative is supported by the UNESCO Chair for sustainable buildings, the UNEP sustainable building and construction initiative (UNEPSBCI), and the World Federation of Technical Assessment Organizations (WFTAO). Dr. Andrew Persily is the Vice President of ASHRAE. He will chair the ASHRAE Technology Council, which is responsible for standards development, research and related technical activities.  

Indoor Air Quality Dr. Andrew Persily is Vice Chair of the ASTM Subcommittee on Indoor Air Quality (D22.05) and Dr. Cynthia Reed is this Subcommittee's Secretary. D22.05 has approved and is currently developing a suite of standards related to indoor contaminant measurement, analysis and interpretation. Several of these standards are based directly on research and methods developed by BFRL. In addition, Dr. Persily and Dr. Reed have led two ASTM indoor materials emissions workshops involving industry and various federal agencies, which have helped reshape the direction of D22.05's indoor emissions standards. Dr. Persily is a member and former Chair of the ASTM Subcommittee on Infiltration and Ventilation Performance (E06.41). Under his leadership, more than 15 standards for evaluating building air-tightness, ventilation performance and other aspects of air leakage and airflow in buildings were developed. He also was a member of the ASHRAE Committee on Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality (SPCC 62.1) from 1992 through 2003, serving as Chair for the last four years of his tenure. He now serves the committee as a consultant. Mr. Steven Emmerich serves as Chair of the ASHRAE Standards Committee on Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Low-Rise Residential Buildings (ASHRAE SSPC 62.2). This standard was first published in 2003. Mr. Emmerich is also Chair of the subcommittee that is developing a companion guideline and overseeing development of a users' manual. Mr. Steven Bushby is Vice Chair of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to ISO/TC 205, Building Environment Design. This committee is developing a wide range of standards related to design criteria for the indoor environment of buildings. The U.S. TAG is responsible for developing the U.S. input and official positions on all standards developed in the committee.  

Building Heating and Cooling Dr. Mark Kedzierski serves on the ASHRAE Committee on the Method for Measurement of Proportion of Lubricant in Liquid Refrigerant (ASHRAE SSPC 41.4), which is responsible for revising the measurement standard for determining the mass concentration of miscible lubricant-and-liquid-refrigerant mixtures and, in limited cases, immiscible mixtures. The goal of this revision is to assure that the standard is applicable to new refrigerants and lubricants. Dr. Kedzierski is the Secretary of ASHRAE SSPC 41, Methods for Measurement Standards.  

Dr. W. Vance Payne serves on the ASHRAE Committee on Method of Testing Capacity of Four Way Refrigerant Reversing Valves (ASHRAE SSPC 153P). This committee is developing a new standard for determining the flow capacity and pressure drop characteristics of four-way refrigerant flow reversing valves commonly used in vapor compression heat pump systems. Producers normally supply customers with reversing valves based on refrigerating capacity ratings in kW (tons) of refrigeration at a specified suction vapor line pressure drop. This standard seeks to provide a common method for capacity rating of these valves thus reducing valve rating variability.  

Dr. Payne is also a member of the Standard Project Committee formed to update ASHRAE 16 Method of Test for Rating Room Air Conditioners and Packaged Terminal Air Conditioners. The standard prescribes a method of testing for obtaining cooling capacity and airflow quantity for rating room air conditioners/heat pumps and packaged terminal air conditioners/ heat pumps. The committee is combining two standards into one complete standard for cooling and heating ratings. The last update of this standard was in 1983.  

Mr. Brian Dougherty is a voting member on the Standards Project Committee working to update ASHRAE Standard 116 Methods of Testing for Rating Seasonal Efficiency of Unitary Air Conditioners and Heat Pumps. The standard, last revised in 1995, is being updated to be compatible with current industry practices, equipment technologies, and recently revised ASHRAE standards and the DOE test procedure. The revised standard was released for public review in September 2007.  

Dr. William Healy is a voting member of ASHRAE Standard 118.2 Method of Testing and Rating Residential Water Heaters. This standard governs the evaluation of the energy factor, which rates the thermal efficiency of residential water heaters, and the first-hour rating, which provides a metric for the amount of hot water provided by a tank. The committee is currently considering changes in this test procedure to correct errors in calculations and to make the procedure more consistent. Work has been undertaken to determine the differences between the ASHRAE procedure and the Department of Energy's procedure in an effort to align the two methods of test.  

Dr. David Yashar is an expert to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) TC59 WG12 Testing and Rating of Household Refrigeration Appliances. This group, comprised of diverse experts representing the interests of 10 countries on four continents, is working to develop a globally acceptable method for rating the energy consumption of household refrigerating appliances. The ultimate goal of this working group is to develop an international standard that can be adopted by all nations requiring performance ratings.  

The International Organization for Standardization's (ISO) Technical Committee 86 Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning is composed of eight subcommittees that address topics such as terms and definitions, safety, and testing and rating methods for refrigeration and space-conditioning equipment. Mr. Brian Dougherty participates as a member of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group (TAG). The TAG monitors and formulates the U.S. position on all TC 86-sponsored standards activities. Mr. Dougherty serves as a member of Panel 6, which makes recommendations to the full TAG on ISO standards activities dealing with factory made air conditioning and heat pump units. Mr. Dougherty is also a member of the U.S. delegation on ISO Working Group 1 within Subcommittee 6. WG1 recently revised two testing and rating standards that apply to unitary air-conditioners and heat pumps while developing a third testing and rating standard for multi-split air conditioners and heat pumps. This same committee was recently tasked with adding sections to all three forthcoming ISO standards that address seasonal performance and guidance on evaluating the uncertainties associated with the reported performance parameters.

Alternative Building Energy Systems Mr. Mark Davis is the standards subcommittee Chair of ASHRAE Technical Committee 1.10 Cogeneration Systems. This subcommittee is beginning to develop a method of test to determine the performance for micro-cogeneration systems. This new standard will ultimately provide test data that can be manipulated by a separate rating standard to communicate to consumers the potential costs and benefits of installing a micro-cogeneration device.

Dr. A. Hunter Fanney is an active member of ASME. He is an ASME Fellow and past Chairman of the ASME Solar Energy Division. This Division is responsible for coordinating all solar energy activities within ASME including the Journal of Solar Energy Engineering, annual conferences, student activities, and awards. He has served as an Associate Editor of ASME's Journal of Solar Energy Engineering and is currently serving as Senior Advisor to the Division as well as Chairman of the Frank Kreith Energy Award.

Dr. Fanney is a member of subcommittee ASTM E44.09 Photovoltaic Electric Power Conversion. E44.09 deals with numerous issues concerning the testing and evaluation of photovoltaics. Current areas of interest include developing rating methodologies for photovoltaics that use short-term data to predict long-term performance, and improved indoor and outdoor test procedures.

Building Controls and Communications Mr. Steven Bushby has served on the ASHRAE Standards Committee since 2005 in a variety of roles. He is currently Vice-Chair of the committee and Chair of the Technical Committee Liaison Subcommittee. The Standards Committee is responsible for overseeing the development and maintenance of all ASHRAE standards, guidelines, and code language documents.

Mr. Bushby is the convener of ISO/TC 205 WG 3 Building Control System Design. This working group is developing a multi-part international standard that addresses several issues related to building control systems including control system functionality, communication protocols, system specifications, and project management. ANSI/ASHRAE standards 135 and 135.1 (BACnet and its companion testing standard) have been adopted as ISO standards through this committee. Mr. Bushby chairs ISO TC 205, Maintenance Agency for EN ISO 16484-5 and EN ISO 16484-6, Building Environment Design for the purpose of streamlining the process for updating and maintaining the standards. These standards are the international versions of the ASHRAE BACnet standard and its companion testing standard. The purpose of this activity is to keep these European and ISO standards synchronized with the underlying ASHRAE standards upon which they are based.

Dr. David Holmberg serves on ASHRAE Standing Standards Project Committee 135 (SSPC 135). SSPC 135 is responsible for maintaining the BACnet communication protocol standard (ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 135) and a companion standard ANSI/ASHRAE 135.1 Method of Test for Conformance to BACnet. These standards have been adopted by CEN, ISO, and more than 30 countries around the world. The BACnet standard provides a way to integrate building automation and control products made by different manufacturers for applications such as heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning control, lighting control, access control, and fire alarm systems. Dr. Holmberg also leads the Utilities Integration Working Group of SSPC 135 and served as a voting member between July 2004 and June 2008.

Dr. Stephen Treado serves on ASHRAE Standing Standards Project Committee 135 (SSPC 135) and ANSI/ASHRAE 135.1 Method of Test for Conformance to BACnet. He serves on the Life Safety and Security Working Group and the Lighting Applications Working Group and began a four-year term as a voting member of the committee in July 2008. Dr. Treado represents BFRL on the CIB Working Commission on Climate Change and the Built Environment (W 108) and the CIB Task Group on Energy and the Built Environment (TG66).

Mr. Michael Galler is the Secretary of the ASHRAE Guideline Project Committee 20, XML Definitions for HVAC&R, which is  tasked with establishing a common data exchange format for the description of commodity data and HVAC&R information via the standard XML (extensible Markup Language) formatting language. Guideline 20 will define a process for development of XML schemas applicable to the HVAC&R field, and Mr. Mark Palmer serves the committee as a consultant.