ASHRAE withdraws Air Barrier Addendum z

ASHRAE has withdrawn BSR/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard Addendum z , which would have added requirements for a continuous air barrier to ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007 .

The ASHRAE Board of Directors approved the addendum after Standing Standard Project Committee (SSPC) 90.1 completed the development and member balloting process. According to Larry Spielvogel, PE, consulting engineer, King of Prussia, Pa., and past chair of SSPC 90.1, had Addendum z to 90.1-2004 been approved before 90.1-2007 was published, it would have been included in the 2007 edition.

Since this did not happen, it became an addendum to 90.1-2007. If the appeals had been dismissed, it would have been issued as an addendum to 90.1-2007, incorporated into a 2008 or 2009 supplement, and then incorporated into 90.1-2010.

According to ASHRAE public relations specialist Wendy Angel, “This [the withdrawal of the addendum] has no impact on the adoption of 90.1-2007… The next step is up to SSPC 90.1, as it is the consensus body for this standard. No decision has been made at this time.”

As for air leakage requirements in 90.1, “the withdrawal of Addendum z keeps the air leakage requirements as those listed in Section 5.4.3 of 90.1-2007 since the proposed addendum was not yet part of the standard,” said Angel.

The ASHRAE Board of Directors approved the publication of Addendum z to ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007 at the ASHRAE winter meeting in New York City in January 2008. Separate appeals to the addendum were submitted to the ASHRAE Board of Directors by S. Craig Drumheller, senior energy engineer, NAHB Research Center, National Assn. of Home Buildings, Upper Marlboro, Md.; and Stephen Skalko, PE, Manager, Regional Code Services, Portland Cement Assn., Macon, Ga.

The appeals were filed on March 4 and March 7, 2008, respectively. Both appeals cited procedural and technical flaws in Addendum z. Responding to the appeals was Michael (Mick) Schwedler, PE, applications engineering manager, Trane, La Crosse, Wis., who chairs SSPC 90.1. The Appeal Panel conducted a hearing on the appeals at the ASHRAE annual meeting in Salt Lake City on June 22, 2008.

James E. Hill, PhD, recently retired from NIST and past president of ASHRAE, chaired the panel. Other panel members were Lee Burgett, PE, retired from Trane as vice president-new ventures and past president of ASHRAE, La Crosse, Wis.; David R. Conover, government relations senior advisor, International Code Council, Washington, D.C.; Victor Goldschmidt, PhD, professor emeritus, Purdue University, School of Mechanical Engineering, Northport, Mich.; and Steve Taylor, PE, Fellow ASHRAE, principal, Taylor Engineering, Alameda, Calif.

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