Today's Facility Manager | Tricks Of The Trade: Following Up On HVAC Trends

By James C. Elledge, IFMA Fellow, CFM, FMA, RPA, RIAQM
Published in the October 2011 issue of Today's Facility Manager

Q I need a time line graph showing the relationships between the major casual drivers leading to the innovation of new technology (emerging stratified air ventilation systems) mentioned in the TFM article, "HVAC Trends: The New HVAC" [by Gordon Holness, January 2010], and also a time line graph of the new HVAC technology. These graphs will help me better explain the relationships between growing need for this new technology and the future growth trend of the technology itself.

Funsho Farinde
Graduate Student
Construction Engineering Management
Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR

A Much of the information you are seeking will be available in books and manuals published by the different associations dealing with the various HVAC technologies you are reviewing. There is a helpful timeline on air conditioning and refrigeration from its inception. This resource is published by the National Academy of Engineering, "Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century: Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Timeline."

Regarding the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), a full timeline is posted for review online here. This timeline shows what steps were involved for those organizations participating in the program.

If you visit the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy website, you can review the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA 2007). You can see different timelines for energy reduction, reduction of fossil fuels in buildings, energy savings, and increasing the use of alternative energies. Details are available online here. In addition, the Building Energy Codes Resource Guide: Code Officials Edition is available for free download.

You may also want to check out your school's library to see if the ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007 User's Manual is available to review.

Standard 90.1-2007 (I-P) is available for free download courtesy of ASHRAE and the Department of Energy. This would be a nice reference piece to use in your research.

Finally, the International Code Council's 2009 International Energy Conservation Code is also available for free download online here.

Elledge, facility/office services manager for Dallas, TX-based Summit Alliance Companies, is the recipient of the Distinguished Author Award from the International Facility Management Association (IFMA), is an IFMA Fellow, and is a member of TFM’s Editorial Advisory Board. All questions have been submitted via the “Ask The Expert” portion of the magazine’s web site. To pose a question, visit this link. For additional stories on technology, visit this section of FacilityBlog.