by Shane Henson — July 12, 2013—Outdated internal equipment heat gain data can result in oversized systems and higher operating costs, yet it is said to be one of the most difficult areas for engineers to define. To assist the building environment industry in defining these loads and designing more cost-efficient systems, internal equipment heat gain and load density data have been updated in the newest edition of the 2013 ASHRAE Handbook: Fundamentals, released last week by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning (ASHRAE), a building technology society with more than 54,000 members worldwide.
The publication’s 39 chapters cover basic principles and data used in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC&R) industry, including updated information on building materials, load calculations, energy resources and analysis, refrigerants, indoor environmental quality, sustainability, controls, duct and piping system design and more.
Major revisions were made to Chapter 18, “Nonresidential Cooling and Heating Load Calculations,” including the new internal heat gain data and recommendations, an elevation correction example, and an equation summary, says ASHRAE.
The chapter also includes an entirely new master example section based on the renovated ASHRAE headquarters building. The updated example reflects current practice in energy-efficient building construction, lighting loads and updated Standard 90.1, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, compliance, as opposed to the previous example, which reflected 1990s practice.
Additionally, the climatic design content of 2013 Fundamentals has been expanded to include data from nearly 900 more worldwide reporting stations than the 2009 volume—a 16 percent increase. Chapter 14, “Climatic Design Information,” now contains temperature and humidity design conditions and related information for 6,443 locations in the United States, Canada and other countries around the world. The increase in the number of weather stations’ data is as a result of ASHRAE Research Project 1613.
Other new information can be found in Chapters 2: “Thermodynamics and Refrigeration Cycles;” 5: “Two-Phase Flow;” 9: “Thermal Comfort;” 10: “Indoor Environmental Health;” and other chapters.
Chapters in the ASHRAE Handbook are updated through the experience of members of ASHRAE technical committees and through results of ASHRAE Research reported at ASHRAE conferences and published in ASHRAE special publications and in ASHRAE Transactions, notes the organization.
