International. ASHRAE announced a new update to Standard 55 that offers the latest guidance on thermal comfort and occupancy. This standard is updated for 2017 and includes seven built-in addenda, to better specify the conditions of acceptable thermal environments and is intended for use in the design, operation and commissioning of buildings and other occupied spaces.
In addition, the 2017 edition provides three methods of compliance: a graphical method for simple situations, an analytical method for more general cases, and a method that uses high airspeed to provide comfort.
The standard has a separate method for determining acceptable thermal conditions in naturally conditioned spaces controlled by occupants. Given the wide and easy access to computing power and third-party implementations of the analytical method, it is expected that more users will favor comprehensive analytical methods over the graphical method.
Since 2013, Standard 55 has been rewritten with a renewed focus on its application by professionals and the use of clear and applicable language. The requirements are now clearly established and the calculation procedures appear sequentially. For example, during design, a "representative occupant" must be defined and the air velocity and temperature it experiences should be an average throughout the human body at three typical measurement heights. All background information has been moved to the information appendices.
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