The new 90.1 online portal is a multiple-publication online tool that houses ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, its User’s Manual and a redline version that shows changes to the current standard from the previous edition. The portal was launched in late January.
Using the portal, you can view each publication side-by-side or separately; copy, paste, print and annotate content; see official ASHRAE Interpretations in the context where they matter; and see errata.
The new portal is the Advanced Energy Standard Working Group’s brainchild and was created to make the standard more universally adoptable, said Drake Erbe, Member ASHRAE and chair of ASHRAE’s Standard 90.1 Committee.
Because a lot of engineers work for international companies and with colleagues who live in different time zones, the electronic format is geared to help professionals working with the standard to analyze the corresponding documents in a collaborative manner.
“If they have the ability to look at this information simultaneously or if they have the ability to look at the same piece of information, their job becomes a lot easier, and the adoption of the standard becomes, I think, a better option universally,” said Erbe.
The portal’s goal is to increase the use of the standard, including among younger professionals who do not want to “lug around a whole bunch of publications” and among code officials who have been reluctant to adopt the standard because it can be challenging to use, he said.
“This seems to be a way that we can ensure that the standard and user’s manual are being used by the people who are coming up, designing buildings, learning to design buildings and schools and all that. That’s what this is about,” he said.
To learn more about the 90.1 Portal, visit.