ASHRAE Offers Advanced Design Guides for FREE Download!

ASHRAE is pushing the envelope of sustainable design. And, in keeping with that push, they are now offering their series of Advanced Design Guides for a free electronic download!

This is a great offer for anyone in our industry--these design guides are a must add to any designer's library.



The ASHRAE Press Release:

ATLANTA – To encourage energy efficient design in a range of building types, ASHRAE and its partnering organizations are making available for free the Advanced Energy Design Guide series.

Electronic versions of the newest book in the series, Advanced Energy Design Guides for K-12 School Buildings, as well as the existing guides on small office and small retail buildings are available for free download at www.ashrae.org/freeaedg. Future guides, including one focused on warehouses to be published this spring, will be available for free electronic download as well.

“Energy efficiency is still a vast and underutilized energy resource that is essential to the long-term survival of our world,” says ASHRAE President Kent Peterson. “Buildings consume approximately 40 percent of the primary energy in the United States. As part of our energy efficiency market deployment strategy, we want to get this valuable building guidance into the marketplace and into the hands of owners, contractors and design teams. The technology is available today to construct substantially more efficient buildings. Free distribution of the Advanced Energy Design Guide series will help educate the marketplace on how to build energy efficient buildings that use significantly less energy than those built to the minimum code requirements.

“The Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) supports the electronic distribution of the Advanced Energy Design Guide series to ensure widespread availability of these voluntary recommendations,” said Rita Harrold, IESNA member of the AEDG Steering Committee. “Offering these important Guides for free download to a large audience of users will help further the partnering organizations’ efforts to create a more secure energy future.”

In addition, the K-12 guide was sent to nearly 14,000 school systems around the country to assist with the design of energy-efficient schools that create safe and comfortable environments conducive to learning.

Partnering organizations include the American Institute of Architects, the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, the U.S. Green Building Council and the U.S. Department of Energy.

“Addressing energy use in our buildings is one of the most important measures we can take in our efforts to protect the health of our environment,” said Brendan Owens, vice president of LEED Technical Development, U.S. Green Building Council. “The Advanced Energy Design Guide series are critical publications for the building industry. Every percentage point reduction in buildings’ energy use brings us that much closer to our goal of mitigating climate change.”

"The importance for all design and construction professionals to move toward carbon neutral, sustainable buildings is of paramount importance to the American Institute of Architects," said Christine McEntee, executive vice president and CEO of the AIA. "The Advanced Energy Design Guides are an approachable, important tool to help achieve that goal."

The guides provide a sensible, hands-on approach to design through use of products that are practical and commercially available as “off-the-shelf” technology. They offer designers and contractors the tools needed for achieving a 30% energy savings compared to buildings that meet the minimum energy efficiency requirements of Standard 90.1-1999.

Hard copies of all of the guides are available for purchase. For more information, visit www.ashrae.org/freeaedg.

To order, contact ASHRAE Customer Service at 1-800-527-4723 (United States and Canada) or 404-636-8400 (worldwide), fax 404-321-5478, or visit at www.ashrae.org/bookstore.

History of February Social Events

Puget Sound Chapter’s February social event was started in 1970 with the first-ever chapter Valentine’s Party. The event was held at the Sea-First Bank Building with entertainment provided by the Seattle Sea-Chordsmen, members of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. (SPEBSQSA). A Punch List article was quick to note this organization had a name longer than ASHRAE!

The Seattle Sea-Chordmsen provided entertainment at the first two February social events in 1970 and 1971.

Chapter “Sweethearts Night” February 1973

The second Valentine’s Party (1972) provided an encore performance by the Sea-Chordsmen. In 1973 musical entertainment was provided by the Sweet Adelines, a nationally known ladies chorus. In 1974, KOMO-TV newscaster Rod Chandler presented his film A Journey to Changing Russia.

Many socials in the 70s and 80s simply consisted of cocktails, dinner, and dancing. However, notable guest speakers included Jean Enersen, KING-TV 11 PM news co-anchor (1976) and University of Washington professor Angelo Pellegrini (1979) who spoke on “Wine in American Life”. It was noted in the Punch List that Dr. Pellegrini was one of the first to urge Americans to accept wine as the appropriate dinner beverage (thus making him an appropriate speaker for the ASHRAE dinner event).

February socials have also consisted of tours including Ste. Michelle Winery (1985), Seattle Aquarium (1988), and the Museum of Flight (1993). Other social events have included a dinner cruise on The Spirit of Puget Sound at Pier 70 (1991, 92). Mystery Café “Set Your Dial to Murder” (1995), and the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train (1996).

In 2007, the chapter elected to use the annual social meeting time as a volunteer opportunity by helping the Mountains-to-Sound Greenway pot plants for future reforestation efforts. This was an extremely successful event with a large turnout of Puget Sound Chapter members and families. This new tradition will be continued in 2008 with a volunteer day at the Washington Park Arboretum, 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM, Saturday, February 23.

Jeff Sloan inspects the work of Chapter President Tim Burns at the 2007 Puget Sound Chapter February Social Volunteer Activity. A new tradition that will be repeated this year at the Washington Park Arboretum on February 23.

President's Message, February 2008

Busy.

In one word, that is what the lives of our chapter officers and members are like. Many of us have hardly touched down from our flights back from the NYC ASHRAE Society meeting and AHR show, and we are already working feverishly for upcoming chapter events.



Engineering Vision 2030 is really taking shape, and (as of this writing) it is only a few days before the official notification and registration goes live. We have been extremely fortunate in attracting some very prominent presenters and I expect that the attendees will greatly benefit from the sessions that will be provided. Stay tuned!

The chapter is working toward next year and several officers are making plans to attend the upcoming Region XI Chapters Regional Conference. This provides training for the officers of the chapter as well as provides a great opportunity for them to build relationships with their peers in other chapters and with the officers of Region XI and the national Society. This conference is a big part of what keeps our local chapter running smoothly and is critical to our success as a society.

And, of course, we are continuing our efforts in bringing our membership the most valuable programs we can. Recent highlights have been ASHRAE Distinguished Lecturer Stanley Mumma's presentation on Dedicated Outdoor Air Systems and Chilled Beams at the January meeting as well as the TEGA energy code update meeting later that same month. Both were extremely well attended, and we feel that they brought our membership great value.

Looking forward, we have our annual volunteer day on February 23rd at Washington Park Arboretum, followed closely by a brown-bag with Society President Kent Peterson on February 27th. March is just chock-full of events with our Annual SMACNA/ASHRAE joint meeting on March 12, featuring inspirational speaker Ken Schmidt, and the Engineering Vision 2030 conference on March 26th and 27th. These programs are brought to you by the tireless efforts of our chapter officers and committee members and they deserve kudos for all that they are doing to make Puget Sound ASHRAE a vital part of our industry!

Online Directory for PS ASHRAE Members

Puget Sound ASHRAE Online Member Directory.

Here's how to access the directory: Click here.
You will be asked for an e-mail address and a password. If you have not used the directory before, you won't have a password, so click on the 'Forgot Password' link and enter your e-mail. Note that this should be the primary e-mail you have provided in your membership data at ASHRAE Society. Once you enter your e-mail and hit the 'send' button, you will soon receive an e-mail from Puget Sound ASHRAE with your personal password. Now you can log in using this e-mail and password. This service is provided to all Active Members who have paid their Chapter Dues. If you are currently not listed as a member in our database, you will be notified and asked to contact the membership chair to make sure our records are up to date.

Once you are signed in, you will have the option of updating your password, search the member database, or to view a printable list of all of the member data. Note that the printable list can be sorted by any of the fields listed simply by clicking on the heading of that column. If you wish to remove your name from the publicly displayed list, there is a check box available at the update password screen that will allow you to toggle your information between public and private.

Please take the time to verify your own personal data. All of the data listed is from the Society database--if you want to change your information, we request that you update it online at www.ashrae.org. We will update our local database periodically by downloading the most current data from Society.  This directory is for convenience of our local members only, the information will not affect any mailing preferences you may have registered with society.

We'd love to hear any comments or suggestions. Also please note that much of the ancillary information that we would provide in the old hardcopy directory is now available online, including code compliance contacts and local contractors, etc. These can be found by hitting the 'directory' link in the 'Topics' side bar on the right hand side of the screen. And more information will be added in the near future!