ATLANTA - Eight addenda to the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers' (ASHRAE's) energy conservation and building controls network standards have been approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

Also receiving approval from ANSI's Board of Standards Review was ANSI/ASHRAE 158.1-2004, "Methods of Testing Capacity of Refrigerant Solenoid Valves," which prescribes a method of testing the capacity of refrigerant solenoid valves for use in refrigerating systems.

Five addenda to ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2001, "Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings," were approved. The standard provides the minimum requirements for the design of energy efficient buildings.

Addendum 90.1h updates the references in Section 12 and the test procedure references in sections dealing with building material thermal properties and assembly U-factors.

Addendum 90.1p contains requirements to ensure that building energy simulation programs remain bug free. The addendum requires that the programs be tested with ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 140-2001, "Standard Method of Test for the Evaluation of Building Energy Analysis Computer Programs."

90.1o revises an exception to Section 6.3.1., economizers, to indicate that it applies only to heat recovery systems that are required by Section 6.3.6.2., heat recovery for service water heating.

90.1r adds requirements regarding return duct insulation.

90.1s revises exceptions (g) and (i) in Section 6.3.6.1., exhaust air energy recovery.

Three addenda to ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 135-2001, "BACnet - A Data Communication Protocol for Building Automation and Control Networks," were approved. This provides an open, consensus-developed standard for the building controls industry.

Addendum 135a changes the way schedules are represented and maintained in BACnet systems.

Addendum 135c contains eight new features that include enhancements to the life safety objects and services and the ability to represent utility meters and other measuring devices that provide pulsed outputs.

Addendum 135d contains information on how to interconnect BACnet devices with devices that use the EIB/Konnex protocol.

For more information, visit www.ashrae.org.

Publication date: 04/05/2004