Tracking ASHRAE news and standards open for comment

The below drafts are open for 30-day public reviews

• BSR/ASHRAE/ASHE Addendum l to ANSI/ASHRAE/ASHE Standard 189.3-2021, Design, Construction, and Operation of Sustainable High-Performance Health Care Facilities (public review draft).  Public commenting is open Aug. 23 to Sept. 22. 

  This addendum updates the lighting power densities with special consideration for health care areas. Table 7.4.6.1 B and C are updated to reflect these changes along with updated footnotes for the user to follow the table. The values in the tables are provided by design and consulting firm Mazzetti. Mazzetti’s Lighting Design Studio undertook a comprehensive analysis aimed at developing a proactive strategy for realistic yet ambitious lighting power densities for ASHRAE Standard 189.3.

• BSR/ASHRAE/ASHE Addendum j to ANSI/ASHRAE/ASHE Standard 189.3-2021, Design, Construction, and Operation of Sustainable High-Performance Health Care Facilities (independent substantive change public review).  Public commenting is open Sept. 6 to Oct. 6.

  Material and product resilience is important in all types of health care facilities, because of infection risk based on premature failure or inappropriate specification for the application based on the cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting requirements of health care spaces. This change requires the Materials section with subsequent recommendations to the Operations and Indoor Environmental Quality sections. New references are added for the user to comply with specifically rated cleaning products. The second public review of this draft addresses comments from the first public review and clarifies the requirements for Scope 3 emissions, finish schedules and properly certified cleaning products.

• BSR/ASHRAE/ASHE Addendum k to ANSI/ASHRAE/ASHE Standard 170-2021, Ventilation of Health Care Facilities (third public review draft).  Public commenting is open Sept. 6 to Oct. 6.

  The proposed addendum clarifies that this section applies to the central systems that provide cooling or heating by changing the name of the section. It adds requirement for cooling reserve capacity in addition to the heating reserve capacity for spaces already listed in this section. This provides guidance to designers to a minimum reserve capacity required to start with and engage with the facility on what their operational needs are. The addendum also takes out the on-site fuel requirement from 6.1.2.1 so that the exception to 6.1.2.1 does not apply to it anymore. It's added back in 6.1.2.2 as its own requirement. The addendum removes the lower limit of 400-ton cooling load as the starting point for considering any reserve capacity for cooling in Inpatient and Residential Health Care facilities.

• ASHRAE Addendum a to ASHRAE Standard 241-2023, Control of Infectious Aerosols (full public review).  Public commenting is open Sept. 6 to Oct. 6.

  This proposed addendum adds two references to the allowable test methods in Appendix A. This proposed addendum also clarifies the use of an Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers standard for non-residential applications.

The below draft is open for a 45-day public review

• BSR/ASHRAE/IES Addendum a to ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 100-2024, Energy and Emissions Building Performance Standard for Existing Buildings (first public review draft).  Public commenting is open Aug. 16 to Sept. 30. 

  This addendum adds several new definitions. Two of them address the meaning of imported energy. The others address renewable energy in order to clarify the characteristics that permit an energy form to be classified as “renewable." The addendum also revises the list of energy forms in Table C-1. It clarifies wording for energy forms with on-site energy production, and removes three energy forms that are possible duplicates of other energy forms, and thus deemed unnecessary. The energy forms listed in Tables C-2 and C-3 are revised to match the energy forms in Table C-1. This will improve the usability of the standard as Tables C-2 and C-3 depend on the energy data calculated in Table C-1.

Visit the ASHRAE portal to make comments on the above addenda.