ASHRAE Journal - August 2008 - (Page 24)

buildings costs more and that the additional design costs will I am asking our technical committee responsible for operation save money every year the building is in service. and maintenance management to collaborate with other TCs to We need to be very open about the fact that a larger budget for develop a proposal for a research project to document the energy planning and design results in lower construction and operating performance of high performance buildings over time. While costs. Owners need to recognize that ignoring the energy per- there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of the decay in efﬁciency formance of buildings cannot be tolerated in an energy-starved of these buildings, there is little hard evidence to describe what world with unacceptable levels of carbon emissions. We must is happening and the causes of any changes. educate investors and owners so that they understand that a I am asking that work be accelerated on a guideline exlarger investment during the design phase of a project produces plaining in layman terms the high-efﬁciency features used in an outstanding long-term return on investment. high-performing buildings and the operating and maintenance High-performance buildings require very specialized main- procedures necessary to protect the performance of those tenance. The operating cost for HVAC systems is made up of systems. several components. Energy cost is a large component. Repair I am asking that our technical committee for integrated buildand replacement cost can be large. Maintenance cost is signiﬁ- ing design complete its work on an integrated design manual of cant and is different from others in one critical characteristic: it practice to support the work of design teams working collaboracan be deferred. Unfortunately, when tively to produce high-performance maintenance is deferred, all of the building designs. This manual must other costs increase. Owners need include the design features that enhelp from ASHRAE professionals We need to be very open about the able effective operation and mainteas maintenance plans are designed nance for high-performance building fact that a larger budget for planning and executed. It is our obligation systems. to deﬁne maintenance procedures I am asking the cognizant commitand design results in lower constructhat will optimize the energy pertees for commissioning Guidelines tion and operating costs. formance of the building. We must 0 and 1 to review those documents also advise the owner of the effect to ensure that these guidelines adthat improper maintenance will have equately address high-performance on the total cost of owning and operating the building. It has operation and maintenance procedures, documentation and long been acknowledged in business that you can’t manage training. what you can’t measure. Maintenance plans need to include It is encouraging to ﬁnd that ASHRAE has the infrastructure energy budgets, and maintenance procedures need to include in place to address these critical issues. We are close to publishenergy reporting. ing ASHRAE/ACCA Standard 180P, Standard Practice for InASHRAE has recognized the need for additional materi- spection and Maintenance of Commercial Building HVAC Sysals and programs to address sustainable building operations tems. We need to work collaboratively with other organizations and has formed Technical Resource Group 7 (TRG 7), Tools such as the Mechanical Service Contractors of America and the for Sustainable Building Operations, Maintenance and Cost Air Conditioning Contractors of America who have developed Analysis. I am asking this committee to coordinate the efforts materials that address maintenance and improved operations. of several ASHRAE bodies to produce publications and pro- Cooperative activities with these organizations can certainly grams to advance our efforts to communicate more effectively accelerate our efforts to keep our green buildings green. to investors and owners. Our business, the buildings business, is the largest user of I am asking our chapters to reach out to local owner-focused primary energy in most countries with developed economies. organizations such as BOMA, IFMA, and APPA to offer to Improving building operating procedures is a no-regrets present local chapter programs focused on sustainable system strategy for saving 10 to 40% of the energy used in HVAC operation and maintenance. TRG 7 will coordinate the devel- systems. The key to implementing improved building operaopment of the support materials for those programs drawing tion is education on the local level. ASHRAE is ideally suited from the resources of our technical committees and the Chapter to ﬁll that need. Technology Transfer Committee. Why is it important that we attack this challenge with priI am asking our chapters to reach out to local building op- ority? This year, we will dump about 30 billion metric tons erators and to present programs on the fundamentals of HVAC of CO2 into our atmosphere. How much is that? There are engineering and operation of high-performance buildings. We roughly six and one half billion of us on the planet, so that is must build technical understanding in this important group of about 4.6 metric tons per person. How big is 30 billion metric people, because their performance is the last and most vital link tons? We know that globally, we produce a lot of oil. We have in delivering high performance in our buildings. Again, TRG constructed a tremendous amount of infrastructure to move this 7 will coordinate the development of the support materials for oil with pumping stations, pipelines and supertankers. We only produce about 4 billion metric tons of oil annually, so we dump those programs. 24 ASHRAE Journal ashrae.org August 2008 http://ashrae.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of ASHRAE Journal - August 2008

ASHRAE Journal - August 2008 Contents Commentary Industry News Letters Meetings and Shows Maintain to Sustain—Delivering ASHRAE’s Sustainability Promise Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation: Current Best Practices Improving Humidity Control With Energy Recovery Ventilation Single- or Two-Stage Compression Data Center Cooling: Using Wet-Bulb Economizers Building Sciences InfoCenter Practical Pointers Products Emerging Technologies Washington Report People Special Products Classified Advertising Advertising Index

ASHRAE Journal - August 2008

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