United States. The mission of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) is to promote the design and construction of heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration systems.
Being a driver of system evolution and design within the HVAC/R community, it was important for ASHRAE to "lead by example" when it came to renovating its global headquarters and meeting Net Zero Energy standards. Being a long-time partner of ASHRAE, Armacell supported their initiatives and recently donated insulation products and accessories for this renovation project.
The reuse of existing structures is a basic principle of sustainability. For ASHRAE to achieve Net Zero Energy performance, the total amount of energy used by the building annually must be equal to the amount of renewable energy created on site. Careful project plans and key system innovations had to be implemented to meet this standard, such as water-saving plumbing and landscaping, energy-efficient HVAC systems, and the ability to leverage on-site energy production.
Some other requirements included low operation and maintenance costs, excellent indoor environmental quality, superior HVAC system performance, and improved acoustic qualities. Above all, the design criteria had to meet and, in some cases, exceed the requirements set out in ASHRAE Standards 62, 90.1, and had to follow the guidelines set out in the new ASHRAE Advanced Energy Guide for Office Buildings. The ultimate sustainability goal was for the building to be verified through available certification programs such as LEED, Green Globes, Fitwell, WELL Building or Living Building Challenge.
Knowing that one of the requirements of this project was to ensure superior HVAC system performance, Armacell provided ASHRAE with solutions to help achieve this goal by donating ArmaFlex insulation and accessories.
To commemorate this donation and thank Armacell, ASHRAE named its IT systems center at the new World Headquarters Armacell Data Center. "Working with ASHRAE and being part of such an impactful project was an honor for our team. Sustainability, which is at the core of our solutions at Armacell, will drive the building materials industry and is the key to future progress," said Phil Chuy, Sales and Marketing Manager, Southeast Armacell.
Having a well-defined project plan and smartly utilizing a $10 million budget that includes substantial donations from industry partners, ASHRAE's building design was a success. The renovated, state-of-the-art building will be on track to convert to fully net-zero energy by March 2021.
