ASHRAE Insights

The focus of the technical program of the ASHRAE 2008 Annual Meeting is establishing a basis for measuring performance of buildings. The meeting takes place June 21 – 25 in Salt Lake City.

“The program addresses the many aspects of current HVAC&R systems and ideas for improving them,” said Mo Hosni, chair of the Program Committee. “The challenge in trying to improve systems is to move from theoretical approaches to practical applications and identify efficient systems and their characteristics that truly work today. To meet this challenge, the program focuses on benchmarking, that is, establishing a basis for measuring performance.”

The program features more than 100 sessions on a wide range of HVAC&R-related topics. These include failed moisture management, water conservation in systems, and the recently published Advanced Energy Design Guide for K–12 Schools.

Sessions specific to benchmarking include:
• Seminar 3: Benchmarking Performance of Ground-Source Heat Pumps in Schools;
• Seminar 9: Benchmarking O&M Costs Using the ASHRAE Interactive Database;
• Transactions Session 4: Why Don’t We Achieve the Desired Energy Results in Our Service Water Heating Systems— Toward Benchmarking;
• Seminar 16: Benchmarking TAB for Commissioning;
• Forum 5: How Do You Benchmark Operations and Maintenance;
• Seminar 26: Benchmarking CKV System Performance;
• Seminar 28: Heat Exchanger Benchmark and Performance Analysis Using CFD Methods—Parts 1 and 2;
• Forum 9: Benchmarking Energy Use in Hospitals;
• Seminar 37: Climate Optimized Cooling: Improved Energy Efficiency and Better Rating Standards;
• Seminar 45: Issues Update II: Performance-Based Energy Labels for Buildings;
• Seminar 46: Panel of Existing Benchmarking and Metrics Affecting the Data Center;
• Seminar 49: Benchmarking the Sustainability of Mechanical Insulations: Materials Largely Ignored from a Carbon Reduction Standpoint;
• Seminar 56: Benchmarking for Carbon Analysis: Here’s What’s Coming;
• Seminar 61: New Rules and Tools for Benchmarking California’s Commercial Buildings;
• Forum 16: Defining Benchmarking for Energy;
• Seminar 67: Actual Building Energy Performance: Measurement, Benchmarking and Labeling; and
• Seminar 69: Benchmarking: New Environmental and Economic Metrics for Evaluating Thermal Energy Storage.

Building on ASHRAE’s work in “green” and net-zero buildings, the program’s sustainability track addresses using direct digital controls as a tool to commission sustainable buildings, water reuse opportunities and quantifying the environmental impact of buildings with a life-cycle assessment.

Keeping building occupants comfortable and productive is the goal of programs in the indoor environmental modeling track. Sessions include air and contaminant flow; adding simulation of the outdoor, near-building zone; and indoor contaminant transport modeling.

In all, the technical program includes 74 seminars, 17 forums, 13 Transactions sessions and 63 papers.