Obituaries: Past-Presidents Phalen & McFeron

As our 2010-2011 year comes to a close and we celebate Past Presidents of Puget Sound Chapter at our May 11 meeting, we pause to remember two leaders who have recently passed:

Richard Phalen
Chapter President 1981-1982

Richard C. PHALEN Born in Bremerton, January 18, 1939, to Dorothy Sidam Phalen and Lester C Phalen. Attended school in Bremerton and graduated from West High School in 1957. Received an Associates Degree in Engineering from Olympic Community College in 1959. Married to Barbara Crittenden in 1960. Surrounded by his family, Richard passed away on April 26, at age 72. He was a member of the Army Reserve from 1957 to 1965. At Paco Pumps he excelled as a Sales Representative and retired after 44 years. Richard was a long time member of the Association of Heating, Refrigeration & Air Conditioning Engineers, where he served as president and was honored for his contributions. He enjoyed attending the symphony and other musical events, camping, hunting and fishing, trips to Alaska and Lake Chelan, and numerous family dinners and barbeques where he refined his skills as a chef. Richard is survived by his two daughters, Janis and husband John Wilds, Ginger and husband Jeff Chan, his sister Patricia and husband Edward Pieper, granddaughter Flora Wilds, nieces Vicki Koehly & Cindy Samson, and nephew Steve Pieper. Memorial services will be held on Monday, May 30, at 1:00pm at the Graham Visitors Center, Washington Park Arboretum, 2300 Arboretum Drive East. In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to Fare Start in Seattle, or the Seattle Symphony.

Published in The Seattle Times on May 1, 2011

Dean McFeron
Chapter President 1982-1983

SEATTLE, Wash. – Dean E. McFeron died peacefully on Wednesday (March 2, 2011), surrounded by his family, from injuries sustained in a recent fall while he was out for a walk on a beautiful day.

Dean was born on Christmas Eve, 1923, to Ruth and Wallace McFeron and was preceded in death by his parents, his brother, Victor, his sister, Carolyn, and his daughter, Phyllis Ann in 1970.
He is survived by his wife, Phyllis; sons and daughters-in-law, Dave and Lexie, Doug and Diane, and Don and Joey; grandchildren, Jesse, Scott, Katie, Elise, Shira, Erin, Ian, Colin and Devin; and great-grandchildren, Molly, Owen, Ryan, Lucy and one baby on the way.

The day after the end of World War II, Dean spotted a cute and lively Navy Wave on a train in New Jersey, introduced himself and married her soon after. They celebrated 65 years of marriage last fall.

He was a WWII Navy veteran and retired as commander. He received mechanical engineering degrees from the University of Colorado and the University of Illinois at Urbana, completing his doctoral studies at the UI where he was also an ME professor.

He moved his family to Seattle in 1958 to join the ME faculty at the University of Washington, served as chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department, and retired as professor emeritus of mechanical engineering about 30 years ago.

He was national president of Sigma Xi, a national officer of ASHRAE, and active in several other professional societies. He enjoyed skiing, was an avid sailor, and a great reader. He was a gatherer and decipherer of data and maintained an active interest in all things scientific.
The family extends thanks to the exceptional doctors and nurses at Harborview Medical Center ICU whose care of Dean and his family provided guidance, support and comfort during his last days with us.

Donations may be made to the Children and Family Ministry at UPC (4540 15th Ave. NE, Seattle, WA 98105) where Molly enjoys Sunday school, or Young Life NE Seattle (P.O. Box 19853, Seattle, WA 98109), a longtime favorite family ministry.

Published in The News-Gazette in March 2011.





Dean McFeron (standing)
and Dick Phalen (seated)
lead a Puget Sound Chapter
meeting in 1981

National Sustainable Building Advisor

You are invited to attend the Sustainable Building Advisor Program Open House/Information Session on Thursday, May 26, 2011 from 5pm to 7pm at Seattle Central Community College, Room 1139B. Please RSVP to analiza.ambion@seattlecolleges.edu or aambion@sccd.ctc.edu for seat and free parking.

Click on the image below for further information and to register:

AIA Seattle - Committee on the Environment (COTE)

Passive House - Presentation

Passive House (passivhaus) is the world’s most rigorous approach to energy efficient design and construction, achieving a 75%-90% greater efficiency than standard built-to-code buildings in the US. With the addition of a relatively small amount of site-produced energy (PV, wind or other), Certified Passive House buildings can achieve Net Zero Energy today.

For more information and to register for this presentation go to: http://www.aiaseattle.org/node/5573

2009 Seattle Energy Code Update

The 2009 Seattle Energy Code (and Washington State Energy Code), Section 1411.1, last sentence of the first paragraph, requires that products covered under Tables 14-1A through 14-1G be listed in a nationally recognized certification program. Tables 14-1A(3) and 14-1A(4) specify minimum equipment efficiencies for VRF equipment and cite AHRI Standard 1230 as the test procedure.

- Per AHRI, the AHRI certification program for variable refrigerant flow (VRF) equipment is now underway for products covered under AHRI Standard 1230.

- Consequently, permit applications that include VRF equipment need to demonstrate that the VRF equipment has AHRI certification (e.g. VRF equipment efficiency needs to be determined in accordance with AHRI Standard 1230 and certified in the AHRI Certification Program, etc.).

John Hogan
Seattle Department of Planning & Development
700 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2000
Seattle, WA 98124-4019
john.hogan@seattle.gov

Association of Energy Engineers - May Meeting

Please join us May 19th at Edmonds Community College where 1) their Facility Director will give us a review of the conservation measures they have implemented at the College and 2) you will learn about all of the continuing education opportunities in energy management & sustainability planning that various colleges offer throughout the Pacific NW. This meeting is being hosted by the students of EdCC's Energy Management courses and will provide all attendees a chance to talk about what is being offered in energy & sustainability, as well as a chance to give feedback into what you would like offered.

For this meeting we are specially inviting all existing students of any college/university by providing this informative dinner-meeting to them for FREE! Local AEE members cost is $20 and non-members is $30.

A full-service taco bar will be provided.

You must pre-register for this event by going to http://www.aeepnwc.com/ and clicking on “Read More”.

When: May 19th, 6:00 PM
Where: Edmonds Community College, Woodway Building, Room 2020

ASHRAE - Public Comment on Standard for Existing Buildings

For Release:
April 26, 2011

Contact Jodi Scott
Public Relations
678-539-1140
jscott@ashrae.org

ASHRAE Seeks Public Comment on Standard for Existing Buildings

ATLANTA – To ensure a sustainable future, the greatest opportunity lies in modifying existing buildings. Only 2 percent of construction projects are for new buildings, while 86 percent of construction dollars go into renovation of our existing building stock.

ASHRAE and the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) are revising ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 100-2006, Energy Conservation in Existing Buildings, to provide greater guidance and a more comprehensive approach to the retrofit of existing buildings for increased energy efficiency. The standard was first published in 1981, and the need for its requirements has grown as more attention is paid to improving energy in our current building stock.

The standard is open for an advisory public review until May 25, 2011. Visit www.ashrae.org/publicreviews for more information.

ASHRAE’s advisory public review process is designed to seek suggestions for new, unusual or potentially controversial elements of a proposed standard that the committee feels would benefit from increased public scrutiny. Unlike ASHRAE’s formal call for public comments process, comments received under advisory public reviews are supportive and do not need to be resolved.

Of the 94.6 quadrillion btu of energy consumed in the United States in 2009, 42 percent was used by commercial and residential buildings. Over the next 24 years, national electric consumption is expected to grow by over 22 percent and natural gas consumption by 16 percent. In the same period, the amount of commercial and residential floor space in the marketplace is expected to increase by 37 percent and 17 percent respectively.

“ In order to offset the growing amount of floor space and subsequent increased energy demands, existing buildings must improve their efficiency, even if every new square foot were built and operated at net zero energy,” Rick Hermans, chair of the Standard 100 committee, said. “ASHRAE and IES are working to make Standard 100 the best source of practical, accurate and cost effective design guidance for existing buildings.”

“Achieving improvements in energy efficiency in existing buildings provides significant rewards in operating savings, conservation of resources and improvements in the environment,” Rita Harrold, IES director of technology, said. “The standard addresses the necessary guidance for a variety of users to develop action plans for their specific needs. Making the standard available for an advisory public review is an important opportunity for contributory comments that will add value to the final document.”

The revised standard provides comprehensive and detailed descriptions of the processes and procedures for the energy efficiency improvements of existing residential and commercial buildings in order to achieve greater energy efficiency.

“Cities like New York, which are constrained in their development due to infrastructure limitations, can use this tool to renovate their existing building stock, freeing up energy for new developments,” ASHRAE Presidential Member Gordon Holness, whose presidential theme focused on energy in existing buildings, said. “Since the standard sets specific energy targets based on building type and climate zone, it can also be used by state and federal agencies and by utility companies as a means of validating building efficiency improvements as a result of tax rebate and incentive programs. Given that 75 to 80 percent of all buildings that will exist in the year 2030, exist today, this rewritten standard gives us a vital resource to fulfill our sustainability goals. President Obama recently announced a series of tax and regulatory changes with a collective goal for a 20 percent reduction in energy use in commercial buildings by the year 2020. That can only be achieved by addressing our existing building stock.”

The standard addresses major and minor modifications for both residential and commercial buildings, single and multiple activity buildings with variable occupancy periods and identifies an energy target for 53 building types in 16 climate zones/sub-zones.

The revised standard also identifies energy efficiency requirements for buildings without energy targets – mostly industrial, agricultural, data centers and special laboratories – and provides multiple levels of compliance.

Recognizing that the type of occupancy, operation and the use of a building plays a key role in its performance, the standard establishes the requirement for developing an energy management plan and an operation and maintenance plan, according to Hermans.

Included within the revised standards is criteria for energy use surveys, auditing, implementation and verification. Appendices are included for life cycle cost analysis procedures as well as identification of potential energy efficiency measures.

“Through this advisory public review, we are seeking broad and general comments on the text of the standard, the concepts of requirements and opinions about the value of the standard,” Hermans said. “Throughout the text there are questions seeking your advice as reviewers of this draft document. Please look at these questions and add your thoughts, answers and comments in the ASHRAE comments database as described in the instructions.”

###

Job Posting - Snohomish County PUD

Energy Efficiency Engineer/ Energy Efficiency Program Mgr/Sr. Energy Efficiency Program Mgr*
$70,000 - $107,000*
Job #2011-1515

*Job Title and Salary dependent on qualifications

Develop and implement energy efficiency projects at commercial and industrial customer facilities to achieve the PUD’s conservation goals. Candidate must have demonstrated ability to identify energy efficiency potential, calculate energy savings, coordinate with contractor installations, post-verify energy savings and provide technical support to the implementation of energy conservation and renewable resource measures for commercial and industrial customers. Requires knowledge of energy management engineering principles, standards and methods used to assess the energy loads and savings potential for buildings, as well as field experience with end-use equipment, systems and applications involving HVAC, lighting, controls, and other energy-intensive processes. Program or project management experience is desired.

Experience/Education: Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering or related field, or equivalent work experience; Three (3) years related engineering experience and must have demonstrated the successful accomplishment of work of the nature defined for this job; Valid Washington State Driver's License. Preferred qualifications: Certified Energy Manager.

Interested individuals should complete the online application and submit cover letter and resume at http://www.snopud.com/ under Careers by 5:00 p.m., May 25, 2011. Please Note: Applications and resumes will only be accepted through Snohomish County PUD’s website as we no longer accept paper, faxed, or emailed submissions. We are an EEO employer (M/F/D/V).