Thursday, November 29, 2007

Puget Sound Chapter - 40 Years Ago

December 1967
A Single Fuel for the Built Environment
Forty years ago, the December chapter meeting topic was “Total Energy Systems” and focused on the use of a single fuel for the built environment. The guest speaker was Frank Gething of Cleaver-Brooks Company’s Heat Recovery Division. Frank, who learned power systems as a British Royal Navy Engineering Officer during World War II, discussed combining engine-driven generators with exhaust heat recovery and ebullient engine jacket cooling to provide on-site electric power, heating, and cooling.
Frank Gething
Cleaver Brooks Co.
Heat Recovery Division
1967







Puget Sound Chapter History Published by Founding Members in 1967
The written history of Puget Sound Chapter had its beginning in 1962 with Chapter President Rod Kirkwood’s appointment of former presidents from the merged Pacific Northwest Chapters of ASHVE and ASRE to record their first-hand experiences of the formation of each predeceasing chapter, and their merger into Puget Sound Chapter ASHRAE. The committee consisted of Carl Anderson, Charles Hall, Clarence Pangborn, and Ernie Weber. This history was published in a series of Punch List articles in 1967-68.

Chapter history has since been amended, but is not fully up to date. Puget Sound Chapter history is viewable on the chapter website at http://www.pugetsoundashrae.org/history.htm. If you have an interest in continuing the tradition of maintaining our chapter’s history, preserving artifacts in the chapter library, or researching historical installations of HVAC&R systems in the Puget Sound region, your assistance is greatly needed. Please contact David Landers, Chapter Historian, at 425-456-2381 or david.landers@pse.com.
Ernie Weber
1929 President
Pacific Northwest Chapter
ASHVE










Charles Hall
1950 President
Pacific Northwest Chapter
ASRE











Clarence A. Pangborn
1950 President
Pacific Northwest Chapter
ASHVE












Not Pictured: Carl Anderson, 1946 President, Pacific Northwest Chapter ASRE


Photos from Fall 1967 Chapter Meetings































Monday, November 26, 2007

ASHRAE Green Guide

I spent some time over the holidays catching up on my reading--I had at least three old ASHRAE Journals to review and I have a copy of the ASHRAE Green Guide just taking up room on my shelf. While I was familiar with the Green Tips portion of the guide (Available for free at the Engineering for Sustainability website), I really hadn't spent much time reviewing the book itself. After a quick review, one of the portions of the book I found interesting was in Chapter 7: Conceptual Engineering Design-Load Determiniation. The guide had some sample pie charts showing average energy use of particular building types in specific climactic areas of the US. The guide provided a web-link to where software to create this type of graph for a given project could be found. The idea being that it would help to know what the state of the industry is when setting performance goals for your high-performance project. The software tool identified, however, is a commercial product and requires the user to purchase a site license to gain the capabilities highlighted in the Guide.

After a little snooping around on the web, I found that much of this information is available for free online: One place this sort of data is available is The Energy Information Agency website. This site publishes a lot of data about energy use in commercial and residential structures in the US, including basic data of energy use broken out by region. This data is compiled from extensive surveys of many, many facilities throughout the US.

More limited in scope, but more detailed in the description of the projects profiled is the DOE High-Performance Building Database. Nearly 100 different high-performance buildings are identified with their energy budgets (in kBTU/sq. ft, based on actual metered performance) provided. Each sustainability strategy for the building is described in detail in the project report that is on public file.

Another resource is the DOE Building Energy Data Book which breaks down energy use by fuel type, occupancy and size for residential and commercial buildings.

These other resources may not be as convenient as the highlighted software, but you can't beat the price!. And other resources are very likely available online.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

ASHRAE Puget Sound Chapter TEGA Committee – Feature Workshop!

Topic: Ground Source Heat Pump System Design

Presenter: Dr. Charles Remund, South Dakota State University
Date: Friday, November 30th, 2007
Location: Seattle Central Library - Washington Mutual Foundation Room, 4th Floor
Time: 8:00am-5:00pm
Cost: $75 for ASHRAE members, $100 for non-ASHRAE members

Breakfast, lunch and snacks provided
Refer to link for course description and outline
Register via PayPal or by check. Contact Lisa Rosenow for address to send check.
Many thanks to A-One Geothermal, Air Associates, Johnson Barrow and Better Bricks for their generous sponsorship!
PLEASE RSVP TO LISA ROSENOW, (425) 712-2173.

Detailed syllabus of GSHP course here.

To sign up for the workshop send an RSVP to Lisa (above) and then use one of the links below to pay.

ASHRAE Workshop Fee for Members - $75.00











ASHRAE Workshop Fee for Non-Members - $100.00








Thursday, November 1, 2007

Membership RVC, Russell Lavitt, to visit Puget Sound

November's meeting will bring Russel Lavitt, the ASHRAE Region XI Membership RVC, to visit the Puget Sound Chapter. He joins us from the Manitoba Chapter in Winnipeg. He will be meeting with the board of governors and will address the chapter on issues regarding Membership Promotion.

In addition, he will be presenting Rod Kirkwood with a plaque commemorating his induction into the ASHRAE Region XI Hall of Fame. This is the first plaque to be presented since the award was started and is unique in its contents. Rod was inducted at the Victoria CRC under the then DRC, Bill Dean.

Congratulations to Rod and a warm welcome to Russell!

Energy Newsbriefs

Energy Newsbriefs is a weekly summary of energy news, articles, research, tools and resources produced by the EnergyIdeas Clearinghouse. It is produced with effort from the Washington State University Energy Outreach Program and the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance. Each week subscribers recieve a collection of interesting links that deal with energy savings ideas or developements in the Sustainability field.

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  • 'Green' plastics

  • Geothermal sustainability


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