Description 2026 ASHRAE Handbook—Refrigeration
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Table of Contents 2026 ASHRAE Handbook—Refrigeration
The 2026 ASHRAE Handbook—Refrigeration covers the refrigeration equipment and systems for applications other than human comfort: everything from commercial grocery stores and food service to mortuary refrigeration, cryogenic medical applications, long-range transport of fresh food, food processing facilities, chemical plants, ice skating rinks, and chilling subsurface soils for stabilization. It’s one of ASHRAE’s most widely ranging Handbook volumes and highlights many of the “hidden” applications of HVAC&R technology that modern society relies upon, but are often taken for granted. This volume gives them the attention and coverage they deserve.
Some of this volume’s most significant revisions and updates include the following:
- Chapter 1, Halocarbon Refrigeration Systems, has extensively updated its tables to reflect new refrigerants in use, and added new worked examples.
- Chapter 5, Component Balancing in Refrigeration Systems, added detailed explanations of relevant calculations.
- Chapter 8, Equipment and System Dehydrating, Charging, and Testing, provides new information on infrared leak detection and vacuum level requirements.
- Chapter 10, Insulation Systems for Refrigerant Piping, has updated charts.
- Chapter 12, Lubricants in Refrigeration Systems, presents new PVT and density plots for low-GWP refrigerants. Information on CFC and HCFC refrigerants has been moved to the Handbook Online version of the chapter.
- Chapter 37, Vegetables, has updated its coverage of refrigerated storage as well as controlled- and modified-atmosphere (CA and MA) storage.
- Chapter 48, Ultralow Temperature Refrigeration, has updated its tables and offers a new worked example on sizing fade-down vessels.
- Chapter 50, Terminology of Refrigeration, has been extensively updated to align with current use in the industry.
The ASHRAE Technical Committees that prepare these chapters provide new information, clarify existing content, delete obsolete materials, and reorganize chapters to make the Handbook more understandable and easier to use. The Handbook is available in hard copy, downloadable PDF, and as access to all four current volumes (plus extra features and an archive of discontinued chapters) via Handbook Online.
This volume is published as a bound print volume, in PDF format, and online, in two editions: one using inch-pound (I-P) units of measurement, the other using the International System of Units (SI).
Future corrections for this volume will be listed in subsequent volumes and on the ASHRAE website. Any extensive out-of-sequence updates in future will be posted to ASHRAE Handbook Online as a supplemental feature.
Reader comments are welcomed. To suggest improvements for a chapter, please write to Handbook Editor, ASHRAE, 180 Technology Parkway, Peachtree Corners, GA 30092, fax 678-539-2168, or e-mail mkennedy@ashrae.org.
Moli (Heather) Kennedy
Editor