The "Indoor Environment — Health, Comfort and Productivity" track of the conference seeks papers highlighting the state of knowledge on the balance of environmental health and energy efficiency in buildings and research directions. The track called "Ground Source Heat Pumps State of the Art: Design, Performance and Research" requires papers addressing all aspects of design that lead to optimally performing systems in addition to avoiding common pitfalls that lead to poorly performing systems.

With low energy and zero energy buildings becoming more prevalent, there are many issues that arise with installation, startup, commissioning and operations, and maintenance. The "Installation, Commissioning, Operation, Maintenance of Existing Buildings" track is looking for papers focusing on lessons learned, improvement of process and team communications, and efforts to improve the installation, startup, O&M, and commissioning of HVAC systems.

The track focusing on refrigeration has an emphasis on global perspectives on new refrigerants, variable refrigerant flow applications, magnetic bearing compressors, and refrigerant management.  Papers on non-comfort cooling applications in food preservation and medical cryogenics are sought, also.

As with past ASHRAE conferences, the Seattle conference also seeks papers addressing advances and practices across HVACR systems, equipment, fundamentals, and applications. In addition, the conference features a professional skills track.

Conference paper abstracts are due Sept. 23, 2013. Upon acceptance, papers will be due Jan. 9, 2014. These papers undergo a single-blind review.

To submit a conference paper abstract or a technical paper, go to www.ashrae.org/seattle.