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ASHRAE 90.1 in the News
New LEED 2009 projects will have to meet increased minimum energy performance
New requirements went into effect April 8.
April 11, 2016 |Peter Fabris, Contributing Editor
The U.S. Green Building Council recently announced that all new projects registering for LEED 2009 beginning on April 8, 2016 will need to satisfy increased minimum energy performance thresholds.
Projects must now earn a minimum of four points in the Energy Performance credits. The referenced energy standard and modeling requirements in LEED 2009 will not change. Buildings falling under the proposed change can use the same methodologies and referenced standards, but will need to earn additional points in order to achieve certification.
“This change is significant both in that it will no doubt increase first costs of most LEED projects when those projects will have to satisfy increased minimum energy performance thresholds,” according to a report in Green Building Law Update. Under the new requirements, buildings must demonstrate an 18% improvement in the proposed building performance rating for new buildings, or a 14% improvement in the proposed building performance rating for major renovations to existing buildings. The previous requirements were 10% for new construction and 5% for major renovations.
The change will apply to LEED 2009 projects registering between April 8, 2016 and October 31, 2016—the last day to register a project under LEED 2009.
- See more at: http://www.greenbuildinglawupdate.com/2016/03/articles/leed/usgbc-making-significant-change-to-leed-2009/
Addition of Subclass 2L Refrigerants Proposed for ASHRAE Refrigerant Safety Standard
Addition of Subclass 2L Refrigerants Proposed for ASHRAE Refrigerant Safety Standard
Dec 9, 2015
ATLANTA – Industry input is being sought into a proposal to modify portions of ASHRAE’s refrigeration safety standard to incorporate subclass 2L flammability classifications.
Addendum d to ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 15-2013, Safety Standard for Refrigeration Systems, is open for public comment until Jan. 18, 2016. To comment or learn more, visit www.ashrae.org/publicreviews.
Standard 15 specifies safe design, construction, installation, and operation of refrigeration systems.
The 2010 edition of ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 34-2013, Designation and Safety Classification of Refrigerants, added an optional Subclass 2L to the existing Class 2 flammability classification of refrigerants. This change was intended to separate single component and blended refrigerants that are difficult to ignite and sustain a flame, from other Class 2 (and Class 3) flammable refrigerants.
“The expectation was that some of the Class 2L refrigerants would be commercialized....
Guidance on Low GWP Refrigerants Presented at ASHRAE Winter Conference
Dec 17, 2015
ATLANTA –As climate change talks in Paris conclude with signing of a historic agreement, countries with high ambient temperature characteristics are looking ahead to next-generation low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants, which take into account environmental impact, performance, safety and costs.
Such countries with high dependency on refrigeration and air-conditioning applications are mainly located in the Middle East and particularly in the Gulf region. Those countries have traditionally been recipients of globally proven refrigeration technologies.
https://ashrae.org/news/2015/guidance-on-low-gwp-refrigerants-presented-at-ashrae-winter-conference
U.S. House of Representatives Misses Opportunity to Support Energy Efficiency
U.S. House of Representatives Misses Opportunity to Support Energy Efficiency
Dec 4, 2015
ATLANTA – This week, the U.S. House of Representatives had the chance to stand with the private sector, professional and nonprofit stakeholder organizations to reaffirm its strong commitment to support the development, adoption and implementation of private sector-led, consensus-based model building energy codes. Instead, the House chose to pass the North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act of 2015 (H.R. 8), which includes language that threatens to reduce understanding of the potential full impacts of the model building energy codes by likely limiting the technical assistance that the U.S. Department of Energy currently provides, upon request, to ASHRAE, the International Code Council, States and Indian tribes for the development, adoption and implementation of these model codes.....
Meeting Minutes Now Downloadable
We will now be posting our Chapter's meeting minutes on this website for download. The Meeting Minutes section is under the "About us" section in the green menu bar on the left of the website. Click here to view the available minutes to download: http://www.ashraetucson.org/about-us/meeting-minutes