When will we have a regulation for thermal installations in buildings in Colombia?
by Eng. Camilo Botero*
At the suggestion of the editor of this prestigious magazine, I write again on this subject, of which I have already written several articles in different journals and have personally invested around 3,000 engineer-hours, ad honorem in the company of at least 15 other prestigious and competent engineers over almost 10 years, without any result, in terms of having a mandatory regulation for our work as engineers in the field of air conditioning. The value of this work, I estimate at more than US $ 300,000, which have not had any recognition.
To write these lines, I took on the task of finding out what regulations and what codes exist in latitudes other than Colombia, and I have found the following.
1. RITE
In Europe and more specifically in Spain, there is the RITE whose first version as Royal Decree I met in 2007, today the existing version is the 2013, but it is in the process of being updated. On February 28, Atecyr organized during the Air Conditioning fair in Madrid, at the International Exhibition of Air Conditioning, Heating, Ventilation, Industrial and Commercial Refrigeration, a plenary session on updating the RITE by ecodesign regulations and by requirements of the European Community.
It is stated in the RITE of 2007, that in 2018, the energy efficiency requirement of the RITE should have been revised, to meet the established periodic deadlines. This revision should include the new ecodesign regulations, mandatory to put on the market products such as thermal generators, heat pumps, chillers, pumps, fans, air treatment units, etc. In addition, there the RITE is accompanied by the Energy Certification of Buildings also Royal Decree of mandatory compliance, which has contributed in a special way to increase the energy efficiency of buildings in Spain.
2. IMC International Mechanical Code
In the USA, they primarily use this code (see annex), for the design, installation, commissioning and reception, by accredited inspectors of air conditioning systems.
3. ASHRAE.
I just received the ASHRAE Handbook 2019; HVAC Applications, which contains the current HVAC and refrigeration applications. I was surprised to find in the general applications in chapter 66, the codes and standards used in practice, and I was shocked to see that they occupy from page 66.1 to page 66.29, that is, in just listing them, they occupy 29 pages!!! And we here with virtually none!
4. ACAIRE.
It has incorporated into its Good Engineering Practices the BPI 09, which incorporates the RITE Version for Colombia 2017 (see annex), but as it is not a regulation, it is not applied or complied with.
5. RETSIT.
The Ministry of Mines and Energy, started more than a year ago this "Frankenstein", as I have called it, because it is a "collage" report and without any practical application. So far its result has not been seen.
How much it has cost the country in energy and sick buildings, not having approved the RITE that we elaborated in ACIEM Valle Chapter and that was officially presented to four ministries: Energy, Environment, Commerce and Housing in 2012, without having even had a response to those official presentations.
As I would like a competent entity to one day evaluate the impact of not having in operation for 7 years the RITE version for Colombia. It would be millions of pesos for inefficiency and many sick for not complying with outdoor air quality standards.
* Camilo Botero is the current Secretary of the Federation of Ibero-American Associations of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration - FAIAR; he was president of ACAIRE and is president of Camilo Botero Ingenieros Consultores Ltda. He has worked as a teacher in several Colombian universities, guilds and currently in ACAIRE in diploma courses of air conditioning projects, energy efficiency in air conditioning and refrigeration, cogeneration and trigeneration, applied psychometrics, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer and turbomachinery. ([email protected]).
