ORLANDO, Fla. - The focus of the 2010 American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers’ (ASHRAE) Winter Conference will be on developments that contribute to making indoor environments sustainable in humid climates. Florida is the perfect backdrop to learn about the latest developments in humidity control, as well as a myriad of other issues in the HVACR industry.

The ASHRAE 2010 Winter Conference will take place Jan. 23-27 at the Rosen Shingle Creek hotel. The technical program will feature more than 90 programs and 300 speakers addressing challenges and solutions to such industry issues as key ASHRAE standards’ impact, humidity control applications, sustainable buildings’ performance, energy conservation and alternative energy practices, and professional skills improvement.

The technical program, which is based on the theme of Building Sustainability from the Inside Out, will focus on humidity control and the industry’s ability to improve comfort for occupants and save energy.

According to Dennis Wessel, the Orlando Conference chair, “The technical program features a mix of presentations and papers concentrated in 11 tracks, including the impact of ASHRAE standards 90.1 and 62.1, sustainability, and a combined energy conservation and alternative energy solutions track, the largest track.”

Technical sessions include Operating Cost Implications in Humid Environments, Enhanced Dehumidification Strategies with Energy Recovery in Hot and Humid Climates, Humidity Control Issues and Solutions for High Performing Buildings, and Solving Moisture Problems Created by Energy Retrofits.

The technical plenary, which will take place Sunday, Jan. 24, from 9:45 to 10:45 a.m., will discuss H1N1 and look at the importance of building ventilation as compared to vaccination and quarantine in infection control.

PUBLIC SESSIONS

Each year, ASHRAE presents a highly anticipated public session at the AHR Expo. This year ASHRAE is adding a second free public session, and both sessions are designed to assist contractors in construction management and high-performance building.

“The bottom line is that we’re all striving to deliver excellent service for our clients and to do that more effectively,” said Billy Austin, chair of ASHRAE’s task group on contractors and design build firms that is sponsoring the sessions. “These ASHRAE sessions will bring together all members of the building team to learn new skills and to explore ways to work more closely together. With contractors representing 25 percent of expo attendees, ASHRAE seeks to bring their knowledge and expertise into these sessions as well as to help shape the society’s future activities in contracting and design-build.”

The sessions, which require no conference badge or fee for AHR Expo attendees, are Construction Management, which will be held on Monday, Jan. 25, from 2 to 3 p.m., and Cost/Benefit Analysis Methodology and Tools Needed by Owners, which will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 26, from 2 to 3 p.m.

Construction Management will cover aspects of systems commissioning that are intended to improve and enhance contractor performance for the benefit of the contractor and construction manager. With LEED now including commissioning as one of the criteria for certification of a building, there will be more commercial buildings requiring commissioning. Commissioning has many different definitions, and as the practice is relatively new to the industry, so there are many varied approaches to its implementation.

Also discussed at this seminar will be preconstruction management basics for the mechanical engineer and contractor on design-build/design-assist projects. This part of the presentation will highlight the mutually beneficial interaction that can occur between a mechanical contractor and the mechanical engineer during the preconstruction stage for a project.

Cost/Benefit Analysis Methodology and Tools Needed by Owners will provide an understanding of high-performance building cost-benefit analysis with a focus on the LEED rating system. Real project example reviews of how options and impacts were tackled and how decisions were made greener will be presented. Several topics will be addressed, including cost/benefit project setup, fiscal metrics, constraints, and length of analysis.

Both sessions will take place at the Orange County Convention Center, site of the 2010 AHR Expo.

TECHNICAL TOURS

This winter’s technical tours will spotlight how technology developed by ASHRAE members is practically applied in buildings. Tours include Darden Restaurants’ new headquarters; the University of Central Florida’s Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences; the Climate Change Education Center at the Orange County Convention Center; and the Florida Solar Energy Center.

The Darden Headquarters tour will be held Sunday, Jan. 24, from 3:15 to 6:15 p.m. Participants will see what technology is required to cook favorite dishes at the headquarters of Darden Restaurants - the company behind such brands as Red Lobster, Bahama Breeze, Longhorn Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Seasons 52, and The Capital Grilles.

The 450,000-square-foot headquarters, completed in August 2009, features 400,000 pounds of sheet metal, 35,000 pounds of stainless steel, 1,750 tons of cooling, 26 air-handler units, 16 Liebert units, 24,000 feet of control wiring, and 22 air-to-air energy recovery units. The building is a mixed-use facility with office space, training space, commercial test kitchens, food laboratories, and state-of-the-art audio-visual capabilities. Darden is pursuing a LEED-NC Silver rating.

The Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences tour will be held Monday, Jan. 25, from 2 to 4:30 p.m. The Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences supports the University of Central Florida College of Medicine as a research intensive medical school where cutting edge medical research spans the entire spectrum from the laboratory bench to bedside. Completed in August 2009, the 198,000-square-foot, five-story building features a major transgenic animal facility/vivarium and Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) laboratory. The building is pursuing LEED-Silver certification.

The Climate Change Education Center (located inside the Orange County Convention Center) tour will be held Monday, Jan. 25, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. and Tuesday, Jan. 26, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. The Climate Change Education Center seeks to inform the public of the environmental, health, and economic benefits of renewable energy and energy efficiency, as well as exemplify ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The center features a hands-on approach with an eco-friendly room setting, graphical and electronic real-time displays of the photovoltaic systems, alternative fuel vehicles displays, educational audio and videotapes, eco-friendly products from selected industries, and a variety of other educational programs.

The tour of the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 26, from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. Highlights will include how HVACR, window technology, natural lighting, controls, and other building technologies were integrated to produce one of the most energy efficient buildings for hot and humid climates. Also find out what’s new in alternative energy sources and energy saving technologies. FSEC is the largest and most active state-supported renewable energy and energy efficiency research, training, testing, and certification institute in the United States.

FSEC’s 20-acre research complex on Florida’s Space Coast is adjacent to UCF’s Cocoa Campus. This state-of-the-art research campus is composed of a number of buildings that provide office, laboratory, and test facilities. Research at FSEC is based on field monitoring, computer simulations, and controlled experiments in highly-instrumented laboratories.

For more information, visit www.ashrae.org/events.

Sidebar: Going Virtual

ASHRAE’s Winter Conference is going virtual this year. The Virtual Conference will extend access to professionals across the country and around the world. Participants in the Virtual Conference will be able to interact with speakers and attendees by posting questions and comments, viewing other comments and viewing the presenters’ responses through an online discussion board, in addition to ASHRAE’s traditional recordings (synced audio and PowerPoint presentations).

Benefits of the Virtual Conference include:

• Access to over 250 presentations;

• Complete coverage of the technical program with access to seminar presentations;

• The ability to post and view comments on presentations;

• Send and receive questions and answers from presenters of selected sessions for a two-week period; and

• Online access to the presentations for one year.

Register for the Virtual Conference at www.ashrae.org/orlandovirtual. Companies may register three or more employees for the Virtual Conference. Additionally, those already registered to attend the conference in person will have access to all virtual content for free.

Publication date: 01/11/2010