Please join us on Thursday, February 9th as will be hosting R. Christopher Mathis, as he presents Energy Efficient Window and Fenestration Technologies. R. Christopher Mathis has spent the past 30 years focusing on how buildings and building products perform – from energy efficiency to code compliance to sustainability and long-term performance.

Back in December we wrote about the class-action lawsuit filed by Henry Gifford claiming that the USGBC practiced false advertising when it claims that homes with the LEED Certification have energy bills up to 50 percent lower.

The case was dismissed by the Federal Court “with prejudice” which means that [...]]]> Update – USGBC Lawsuit Dismissed

Back in December we wrote about the class-action lawsuit filed by Henry Gifford claiming that the USGBC practiced false advertising when it claims that homes with the LEED Certification have energy bills up to 50 percent lower.

The case was dismissed by the Federal Court “with prejudice” which means that the suit can’t be filed again base on the false advertising claims. The lawsuit was filed in the federal court as well as the New York State Court. The Federal Court ruling also dismissed the state court case, as well.

Washington Engineering Program Interns Deliver Presentations on Capitol Hill

Participants in the 2011 Washington Internship for Students of Engineering (WISE) program recently delivered presentations on Capitol Hill on a wide range of engineering issues.

ASHRAE’s 2011 WISE intern, Minjoo Lee of Bucknell University, wrote a paper and resented on barriers and opportunities regarding the adoption, enforcement, and compliance with energy standards and codes.

Minjoo’s presentation and paper is posted on ASHRAE’s Website at http://www.ashrae.org/advocacy/. The paper is a PDF document that you can download.

After an excellent year with much success, I’m happy to be back & excited to be your Programs Chair.  Let’s get this year started off right, shall we?

As I hope you’ve heard, our first meeting of the year is scheduled for Thursday, September 8th at the usual time and [...]]]> Welcome back, ASHRAE Central Florida!

After an excellent year with much success, I’m happy to be back & excited to be your Programs Chair.  Let’s get this year started off right, shall we?

As I hope you’ve heard, our first meeting of the year is scheduled for Thursday, September 8^th at the usual time and place.  Our speaker is Society President Ron Jarnagin presenting his theme for this year, Sustaining ASHRAE Through Leadership.  I’ve had the privilege of hearing the presidential messages from ASHRAE Society Presidents for several years in a row now and I can assure you that Ron’s presentation is not your typical presidential message.  Ron’s theme is very focused on our membership – but I won’t spoil it for you.  Come out and see for yourself!

When you register online for the meeting (www.ashrae-cfl.org) you’ll see PayPal links for ASHRAE Season Tickets on the page too.  As always, we are offering all eight meetings this year for the price of seven.  You also have the option of paying for the Shrimp Boil with your Season Ticket this year.  If you have any questions about the Season Tickets, please don’t hesitate to contact me (mtosh@stanweaver.com).  It’s a great way to save on dinner meeting costs for companies that regularly have engineers attending!

Also during our September meeting we’ll be recognizing the achievements of some of our outstanding chapter members.  We have Design Competition winners (Go Knights!!), a scholarship recipient, Technology Award winners and some of the Best Chapter Chairs in Region XII right here in Central Florida.  There is certainly a lot to celebrate!

I look forward to seeing you all at our September meeting!

DOE solicited public comment on their Technology Review Framing Document, which was created to [...]]]> The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is conducting a review of its technology programs via a Quadrennial Technology Review, as part of a federal government-wide Quadrennial Energy Review. These reviews will help guide the future direction of federal energy priorities.

DOE solicited public comment on their Technology Review Framing Document, which was created to help facilitate stakeholder input. Responding to the call, ASHRAE submitted comments to DOE, which addressed the following issues, among others:

• The principles DOE should follow in allocating resources among technologies of disparate maturity and potential time to impact;

• Research and development of energy flows in buildings;

• The role DOE should play in addressing non-technical barriers to the deployment of energy technologies (the Department grouped codes and standards under this area);

• Modernizing the electrical grid

To view ASHRAE’s comments in full, visit http://www.ashrae.org/advocacy/page/1348.

To view DOE’s Quadrennial Technology Review Framing Document, including an introductory video by DOE Under Secretary for Science, Steven Koonin, visit http://www.energy.gov/qtr/.

In other news… the e-industry news published as a side note that “Microsoft has announced that they plan to cut their average Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) from 2.00 to 1.25 over the next 24 months.”

What does this mean?

“PUE measures the power used for non-IT purposes in a data center, so a PUE of 1.10 says that for every watt used by IT hardware, 0.10 watts are used in cooling, lighting and other supporting infrastructure. Microsoft’s goal equates to a 75 percent boost in the efficiency of its facilities.”

Facebook also recently announced their plan for reducing data center PUE with their Open Compute Project, http://opencompute.org/. They say that drawings are available but I have not been able to access them.

In summary, the Open Compute Project uses evaporative cooling for the data center to reduce the PUE. In addition, they have increased the acceptable cold isle temperatures to range between 65°F and 85°F. The data center is located in Pineville, Oregon which has much lower wet bulb temperatures that the southeast. While these practices aren’t practical for the southeast, it shows how a creative mind can reduce energy costs for high energy-use facilities such as data centers. See the attached PDF for more criteria for the Open Compute Project.

- Tracey Whaley, CTTC- Government Activities Chair, 2010-2011

Increasingly buildings are being recognized for the significant impact they have on energy, the environment, and the economy. As evidence of this, President Barack Obama’s budget request to Congress for fiscal year 2012 includes a request to increase funding for the Building Technologies

Program [...]]]> DOE Building Technologies Program Would See 114.9% Increase Under President’s Budget

Increasingly buildings are being recognized for the significant impact they have on energy, the environment, and the economy. As evidence of this, President Barack Obama’s budget request to Congress for fiscal year 2012 includes a request to increase funding for the Building Technologies

Program (BTP) by approximately 114.9 percent (from $219 million currently to $470 million)

The proposed increase (and really almost any programmatic increase) is significant, as the President has proposed a five-year overall freeze on non-security discretionary spending, as well as funding cuts in several areas.

The mission of BTP is to develop and promote efficient, environmentally friendly, and affordable technologies, systems, and practices for the nation’s residential and commercial buildings that will lower greenhouse gas emissions, foster economic prosperity and increase national energy security while providing the energy-related services and performance expected from our buildings.

According to the President’s budget request, if approved, these new funds would be used, among other things, to support the President’s proposed Better Buildings Initiative, and to bring additional cost savings to consumer appliance standards, accelerated development and adoption of new building codes, development of new information tools on building energy efficiency, building energy scores, innovative financing, support for building retrofits, and other methods to accelerate adoption of new efficiency technologies and practices.

A central question is will the President’s budget mean much? Given the current environment in Congress, it is highly likely that the most important part of the President’s budget may be the program cuts and eliminations he has proposed. The President’s priorities will be important, as they will help to frame the conversation in Congress, and because of this, the building community may benefit from the high value the White House has placed on building codes and technologies.

Swirling amidst this debate on funding for FY 2012 is how to deal with the current fiscal year through one or more continuing resolutions (CRs). The decisions made in the CR will likely have an impact on funding for FY 2012. More on this in the next section…

For additional information on both the highlights and details of the President’s budget, please visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb, or email Mark Ames, ASHRAE Manager of Government Affairs, at mames@ashrae.org.

For additional information on the President’s Better Buildings Initiative, please see the previous (2/11/11) Government Affairs Update, or visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/02/03/president-obama-s-plan-win-future-making-american-businesses-more-energy.

Congress Debates Continuing Resolution, Federal Government Shutdown May Be Likely

Because Congress was unable to come to an agreement on spending priorities for the current fiscal year (2011), since last year Congress has passed several short-term continuing resolutions (CRs) that provided Members of Congress with more time to debate priorities while avoiding a shutdown of the federal government. The current CR expires on March 4, and while the House passed a new CR, the Senate still must debate and approve the legislation. Surveying the political landscape, it appears that a shutdown of the federal government is indeed likely after next week or in the near future – here’s why:

The House-passed CR (H.R.1) would last for the remainder of the current fiscal year, alleviating the need for additional CRs. However, the Republican-controlled House included about $61.5 billion in cuts from FY 2010 spending levels, and is $99.6 billion less than President Obama requested for FY 2011.

Democratic Senators – who control the Senate by a slim majority – have come out in strong opposition to the cuts in the House-passed CR. The result is that the Senate will likely introduce, and seek to pass, its own or amend the House CR to include fewer cuts. If this occurs, a conference committee may be created to work out differences between the two CRs. Conference committees are made up of House and Senate leaders and are rarely used for CRs, as CRs are typically less controversial stopgap measures that for the most part continue current funding levels with little change – unlike the CRs being debated in the current Congress.

Recognizing that it may take longer to work out a CR for the rest of the fiscal year, House Republicans have proposed a two-week CR, which would include up to $4 billion in immediate cuts for the current fiscal year. Senate Democrats have indicated support for another short-term CR with cuts, while they work on a funding bill for the rest of the year, however there still appear to be considerable differences between the desires of House and Senate Members on this issue, and the mood on the Hill seems to have shifted from how to avoid a government shutdown to which party would suffer the most in public opinion.

For more information on the House and Senate spending plans, please visit the House and Senate Appropriations Committee Webpages at http://appropriations.house.gov/, and http://appropriations.senate.gov/.

By – Tracey Whaley, Government Affairs Chair, 2010-2011

Taner Tekin March 8th, 2011 at 5:25 pm

CONGRATULATIONS !

——————————————————————————————————— Goal -

To create awareness about refrigeration and have fun along the way !

Rules –

1.The scenario below is completely fictitious and is to be used for numerical analysis only.

2.Not 100% sure of your answer? You can use a fictitious [...]]]> We have a winner !

Taner Tekin
March 8th, 2011 at 5:25 pm

CONGRATULATIONS !

———————————————————————————————————
Goal -

To create awareness about refrigeration and have fun along the way !

Rules –

1.The scenario below is completely fictitious and is to be used for numerical analysis only.

2.Not 100% sure of your answer? You can use a fictitious name or initials in the comment section. Please be sure to provide your correct email address. We will need that information to contact the winning entry. Your email address will not be posted. All comments will be time and date stamped.

3.Do NOT provide any calculations. As an EXAMPLE only, the answer to the quiz below needs to be in this format

YES, 1.0 kW/ton

4. You could make as many attempts as you like.

5. Prize – Free dinner at our next technical meeting. Good luck!

———————————————————————————————————

Quiz –

The COP of a household refrigerator is 3.2 and works on a simple vapor compression cycle. The total cooling effect is approximately 3 TOR (36,000 BTUH). Government regulations require these refrigerators to be more energy efficient than 1kW/ton.

1. Would this refrigerator qualify (Yes /No)?
2. What is the kW/ton rating for this refrigerator?

Please leave your answer in the form of a comment below.