The new Green Standard - ASHRAE 189.1

Dusting off my notes from my January trip to Las Vegas for the ASHRAE Winter Meeting I came across a session with Past ASHRAE President Kent Peterson talking about Standard 189.1.  This is ASHRAE's Green Standard which has recently published it's user manual.

The big news about this standard is that it's written in a codified language, which means that it is enforceable by code officials, and it is meant for high performance buildings.  

Now before I go any futher let's back up two steps so that I can paint a broader picture.  ASHRAE's superstar standard has long been 90.1, which governs the minimum energy code compliance. It too is also written in codified language and has been updated on a three-year cycle (2001, 2004, 2007, 2010).  It wouldn't be stretch to say that this code is the least that an engineer could design to without breaking the law (a little food for thought). But ASHRAE has also been raising the bar on standard 90.1 with each new version.  

Now that we have talked about the minimum bar for all buildings let's move on to the minimum bar set for High Performance Buildings, Standard 189.1.

Today when people think about high performance buildings, they think green, they think LEED.  But the LEED process is no more than a guideline, a "paint-by-numbers" points system that doesn't always get you a high performance building. Enter Standard 189.1.  Those familiar with the LEED guidelines will look at this standard and do a double-take.  They look the same.  But be careful, they may have the same structure and some of the same goals, but the ASHRAE committee that developed this has taken a lot of care in structuring it into an enforceable language. One of the real keys that is in the standard is the requirement for high performance building operation.  Time and time again the operation of a building is reduced to the level of understanding of the building operators, but this standard has taken steps that this cycle is broken.  Specifically the steps include commissioning throughout the design and construction process, owner training that focuses on system operation not just equipment operation, and plans for operation that incorporate benchmarking, useage, and maintenance.

Putting 90.1 and 189.1 together you will see that they are not independent.  As standard 90.1 becomes more stringent so to will 189.1.  With the ultimate goal for standard 189.1 to become the net-zero standard for buildings.

Other tidbits from the session:

- Standard 189.1 now adopted as an optional path of compliance for the new Internation Green Construction Code

- Water comsumption is quickly becoming more of an issue than energy consumption for most buildings.

- Studies of existing buildings showing that US power consumption is leveling off, despite improvements in efficiencies.  This is primarily due to the fact that we are plugging more stuff in.

- Newest version of standard 62.1 (the ventilation standard) is coming out requiring less ventilation.

Bacon and Our Future

Today was the first day at ASHRAE's Winter Conference 2011 in Las Vegas.  A lot was happening today, not only on the committee level, but also society had a full slate of all-day learning cour ses for the attendees to take (at an additional charge).  The theme for this years conference is Zero energy design, I can't help but see the irony of holding the conference in Las Vegas, the city of excess.The day ended for me at the "Meeting of the Members" Session, where Lynn Bellenger hosted the afternoon event. Lynn is the first women president that ASHRAE has had and she is doing a great job. For Lynn's opening Lynn Bellengerremarks she pointed out how much of an international organization that ASHRAE is becoming.  Some of the newest chapters include Nigeria and Pakistan, with the possibility of opening new chapters in Australia and India.  New in the bookstore is the ASHRAE standard 90.1-2010 User's Manual and ASHRAE is also coming out with an ebook version of "The Green Guide" for the ipad.  And if you are a student and looking for scholarship money, ASHRAE is proudly giving $100,000 annually to support the education of budding young engineering talent. 

The keynote speaker for the afternoon was Jack Bacon, PhD., a self-proclaimed rocket scientist, author, and futurist.  This is the second year in a row (to my knowledge) that ASHRAE has brought a futurist to keynote for the event.  Not that I'm complaining because I love seeing others forecast what is yet to come. Jack spoke about the Green Movement and how the rest of the world have or are in the process of developing their own Green Building Councils. So this is not a fad or something that is maintaining a status quo but rather a rapidly growing trend, requiring that we live in tune with our environment.  Jack also suggested that to innovate in the are of sustainability that we turn our attention to third world countries.  This is important in the sense that in order to survive they must think smarter about the resources they use.  The reinforces my belief that we need to change they way we live and not just try to make incremental improvements to our existing technology.  We need to innovate and Dr. Bacon stated that the greatest change often happens at the fringes.  This is where people can go for broke and be as disruptive as they want, they have nothing to lose but have the passion to win. In a Net-Zero future our goal is to use as little energy as we can while still maintaining a high standard of living. This increasingly harder in a world with accelerating population growth and a finite amount of energy resources to go around.  Things could get ugly.  Jack did point out some positive things, technologies with a lot of potential, namely: Bio-Gas processes using garbage and waste, Printed electronics, energy harvesting (think hand crank flashlights), and a Star Rotor (www.starrotor.com) for high efficiency.  The moral of this story is think smarter, innovate as though your resources where extremely expensive, before they actually are.

Net-Zero Ready?

I have been looking at the HVAC industry online recently and have come to the conclusion that companies in our industry are lagging behind that rest of the world when it comes to the technology train.  When I graduated from college I was excited to get involved in the engineering world with all the lastest technology, only to find out that most firms were still drawing on paper (and thats if they wanted designs done fast). 

Things haven't changed much from then, it seems only the largest firms are adopting the BIM way of designing today.  One could pin that blame on the learning curve involved or the cost of the product, but even when designing green buildings today I see many engineers struggling to achieve the basic LEED points.  All I know is that the future is coming at us fast and it won't be long now before net-zero buildings become the design standard. So my question to you is, "Will the world's engineers be ready to design them?"