Panama. The Panamanian Association of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (Apayre) presented the latest update of the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Regulation (RAV) document that offers the most recent technological and legal changes in the design and installation of HVAC systems in accordance with the changes registered in the matter.
Among the highlights of the document are the following:
1) As required by Law 52 of 2007, the document was drafted in the SI System;
(2) Includes standards for compliance with the Montreal Protocol;
3) The thermal transmission of the sun through the exterior vertical windows is limited;
4) In addition to Panama, thirteen other cities in the country were included in their external design conditions;
5) Articles with natural or mechanical ventilation requirements in buildings were reviewed;
(6) Included a ban on smoking tobacco in public and private places;
(7) The requirements for ventilation of kitchens and laundries using LPG gas were clarified and improved and the use of sliding panel or pallet windows was prohibited, with ornamental ones recommended;
(8) The articles governing the ventilation of both elevated and underground parking lots were expanded;
(9) More comprehensive regulation was added to the pressurization of fire escapes;
10) A table was included with the amount of exhaust air required for various environments;
(11) It was reported that for current trade reasons the dimensions and thicknesses of duct sheets were maintained in inches;
12) At the end of the document the equivalences between the SI units and the most used IPs were added.
The JTIA Plenary highlighted the importance of the document presented and decided to send it to the Mechanical CCP, to be used as a reference to update the current RAV adopted with JTIA Resolution 855 of 2010.
Those interested in purchasing a copy of rav apayre 2013 can write to the email [email protected]
