Building Energy Performance
ASHRAE Technical Committee 7.6

The ASHRAE Handbook is published in a series of four volumes, one of which is revised each year, ensuring that no volume is older than four years.

The Handbook can be purchased at the ASHRAE Bookstore by clicking on this link.

TC 7.6 is responsible for the following handbook chapters in the HVAC Applications Volume:

HVAC APPLICATIONS: Energy Use and Management
Energy management in buildings is the control of energy use and cost while maintaining indoor environmental conditions to provide comfort and to fully meet functional needs. This chapter provides guidance on establishing an effective, ongoing energy management program, as well as information on planning and implementing energy management projects. The energy manager should understand how energy is used in the building, to manage it effectively. There are opportunities for savings by reducing the unit price of purchased energy, and by improving the efficiency and reducing the use of energy-consuming systems. Water/sewer costs and use may be included in the energy management activity. This could be called “utility management,” but “energy management” is used in this chapter.

HVAC APPLICATIONS: Building Energy Monitoring
This chapter provides guidelines for developing building monitoring projects that provide the necessary measured data at acceptable cost. The intended audience comprises building owners, building energy monitoring practitioners, and data end users such as energy and energy service suppliers, energy end users, building system designers, public and private research organizations, utility program managers and evaluators, equipment manufacturers, and officials who regulate residential and commercial building energy systems. A new section has been added on small projects to show how the methodology can be simplified.

The ASHRAE HVAC APPLICATIONS HANDBOOK may be purchased from the on-line bookstore by clicking on the highlighted text.

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Technical committees develop and sponsor technical sessions at the winter and annual conferences. Information about their future technical program is discussed at each TC meeting and at the TC’s Program Subcommittee meeting.

ASHRAE publishes papers and transactions from presentations at its conference events. In addition, ASHRAE records most of the seminar sessions from its conferences on DVD. These DVDs are ideal for use at chapter meetings, in university courses, or company lunch and learns. Products available from the most recent conference may be found here.

Technical Committees are responsible for identifying research topics, proposing research projects, selecting bidders, and monitoring research projects funded by ASHRAE. Information about their specific research program is discussed at each TC meeting and at the TC’s Research Subcommittee meeting.

TC 7.6 participates in these on-going research projects:

RP-1771: Modeling of Typical Commercial Buildings in Support of the ASHRAE bEQ Energy Rating Program
bEQ, Building Energy Quotient Energy Rating Program. Co-sponsored by: TC 7.6, Building Energy
Performance, TC 4.7, Energy Calculations.

The overall objective of the proposed research is to reconcile the differences between the empirical and modeled baselines for energy performance comparison for new commercial building designs and existing commercial buildings, allowing seamless translation of building energy performance metrics among LEED, Standard 90.1, Standard 189.1, Standard 100, and the bEQ As Designed and In Operation ratings. The proposed research will contribute to a better understanding of the role of neutral variables in building energy modeling predictions. The research will also lead to consistency of energy performance metrics for Standard 90.1 (and LEED), Standard 189.1, and Standard 100.

RP-1814: Actual Energy Performance of Secondary Schools and Medium Offices Designed to Comply with ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2010 TC 2.8, Building Environmental Impacts & Sustainability. Co-sponsored by: TC 7.6, Building Energy Performance.

This project will help ASHRAE maintain its leadership position by developing energy standards and other publications targeted to commercial buildings that will help engineers, designers, contractors and owners build and operate progressively more energy-efficient facilities that deliver acceptable indoor environmental quality.

RP-1836: Developing a Standardized Categorization System for Energy Efficiency Measures TC 7.6, Building Energy Performance. Co-sponsored by: bEQ & SSPC 100, Energy Efficiency in Existing Buildings.

The objective of this project is to develop a standardized system for the categorization and characterization of energy efficiency measures (EEMs). The scope of the project will include a literature review of existing EEM lists and categorization systems; development and demonstration of a new, standardized categorization system; development and demonstration of a common set of properties for characterizing each EEM. The project tasks will be summarized in interim reports and a final report at the completion of the project

ASHRAE writes standards for the purpose of establishing consensus for: 1) methods of test for use in commerce and 2) performance criteria for use as facilitators with which to guide the industry. ASHRAE publishes the following three types of voluntary consensus standards: Method of Measurement or Test (MOT), Standard Design and Standard Practice. ASHRAE does not write rating standards unless a suitable rating standard will not otherwise be available. ASHRAE is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and follows ANSI's requirements for due process and standards development. Standards may be purchased at the ASHRAE Bookstore.

TC 7.6 is cognizant for the following guidelines and standards:

Guideline 14: Measurement of Energy and Demand Savings
Proposed Guideline 34: Energy Guideline for Historical Buildings and Structures (TC 9.8 CoCognizant)
Standard 90.1: Energy Efficient Design of New Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings
Standard 90.2: Energy Efficient Design of Low-Rise Residential Buildings
Standard 100: Energy Conservation in Existing Buildings
Standard 105: Standard Methods of Measuring, Expressing, and Comparing Building Energy Performance
Proposed Standard 211P: Standard for Commercial Building Energy Audits
Proposed Standard 214P: Standard for Measuring and Expressing Building Energy Performance in a Rating 
Program

ASHRAE Technical FAQs are provided as a service to ASHRAE members, users of ASHRAE publications, and the general public. While every effort has been made to ensure their accuracy and reliability, they are advisory and provided for informational purposes only, and in many cases represent only one person’s view. They are not intended and should not be relied on as an official statement of ASHRAE. Technical questions not addressed may be submitted to the ASHRAE Technical Services department at tse@ashrae.net.

TC 7.6 is responsible for the following FAQs:

Does ASHRAE have any instructions on the use of ASHRAE Standard 90.1 that will help a designer, engineer, or architect with the building design?
What research is ASHRAE conducting regarding energy efficiency?
How can I show compliance to ASHRAE Standard 90.2?
What energy-efficiency requirements are required for new commercial buildings?
What energy-efficiency requirements are required for new residential buildings?
How do I show compliance to ASHRAE Standard 90.1?
Should residential furnaces utilize a thermostat setback strategy to save energy?

Include other activities, such as MTG involvement, into this section.