HPAC Magazine

Climate zone expansion proposed for Energy Standard

December 12, 2014 | By HPAC Magazine


Addendum w is one of 10 proposed addenda to ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-2013, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, opened for public comment on December 5, 2014. The proposed addendum closes for review January 19, 2015. To comment or learn more, visit www.ashrae.org/publicreviews.

The addendum was developed in response to an update of ASHRAE Standard 169-2013, Climatic Data for Building Design Standards, which now contains updated climate data and additional Climate Zone 0 with humid (0A) and dry (0B) zones. Addendum w adds this climate zone to 90. This has global implications for the standard as Climate Zone 0 does not exist in the U.S. and is primarily used in the equatorial regions of South America, Africa, Middle East, southern Asia and the south Pacific.

“It gives the standard more of an international view with maps and data never before available to users,” Dru Crawley, chair of the Standard 169 committee, said. “Previously there was the single U.S. map.  Now there are high-level (1 deg latitude/longitude) maps of the world, covering each continent and major countries.”

Other addenda open for public review from December 5, 2014, until January 4, 2015 are:

• v revises fenestration orientation requirements
• y adds a new approach to simplified building lighting
• z clarifies and modifies the modeling of a baseline HVAC system with air source heat pumps and electric auxiliary heat
• aa clarifies an exception in  a table in the design model section
• ad revises the preheat coil requirement for the baseline building model in Appendix G
• ae updates a section related to definitions used with motors
• af restores the specification of the rating conditioners for measuring efficiency of heat pump pool heaters
• ag limits mechanical cooling for vestibules
• ah clarifies lighting requirements

ASHRAE has more than 50,000 members worldwide. Its focus is on building systems, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, refrigeration and sustainability.

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