ATLANTA - The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has published its new 2007 residential energy efficiency standard which contains several improvements made based on public input.

ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 90.2-2007, Energy-Efficient Design of Low-Rise Residential Buildings, provides minimum requirements for the energy-efficient design of residential buildings.

“The standard features a simplified format and greater attention to the details of the document based on input received during public review periods,” said Jonathan Humble, chair of the 90.2 committee.

Responses to public input allowed improvements to the following provisions of the standard:

• Further simplification of the envelope tables regarding the categories on walls, below grade insulation requirements, and the fenestration requirements by either combining near like categories into single categories or enhancing the energy values.

• Clearer definition of “conditioned space,” which will help in assessing when and how such spaces should be classified.

• Enhancement of the “mass walls” provisions to make clearer the recognition of this type of system and its benefits to energy conservation.

• Simplification of the cool roof provisions, by removing the equation and table and substituting with a simple table to determine compliance.

• Enhancement to the climate tables with the intent to make the document more acceptable and responsive to the needs of countries outside the United States and Canada. In this case, added were climate data for China, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Mexico.

The cost of ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 90.2-2004 is $95 ($76, ASHRAE members).

To order, contact ASHRAE Customer Service at 800-527-4723 (United States and Canada) or 404-636-8400 (worldwide), by mail at 1791 Tullie Circle NE, Atlanta, GA 30329, or visit the ASHRAE online bookstore at www.ashrae.org.

Publication date:06/11/2007