Special ASHRAE/AHR Coverage

The 2003 Winter Meeting in Chicago can be dubbed a success, as almost 40,000 attendees were able to view nearly 2,000 exhibits at the AHR Expo; both were show records. The big news, of course, was the announcement that BACnet has become an international standard (see p. 16). Furthermore, ASHRAE officials announced they have established a liaison with the Russian Association of Engineers for Heating, Ventilation, Air-Conditioning, Heat Supply and Building Thermal Physics (ABOK), the Russian equivalent to ASHRAE. Finally, a BACnet addendum that improves the capabilities of BACnet devices made by different manufacturers to collect and share trend data has been approved for publication.

ASHRAE also announced the publication of a new report—”Risk Management Guidance for Health, Safety and Environmental Security Under Extraordinary Incidents”—intended to help designers and managers of both new and existing facilities protect their buildings’ air, water and food systems. “Most are not aware of how vulnerable and interdependent these systems are,” says Dr. James Woods, P.E., the chair of the Ad Hoc committee that produced the new document. “This report addresses that vulnerability and suggests measures to reduce the risk of disruption.”

Visit https://xp20.ashrae.org/about/extraordinary.pdf for more information.

Seminars, symposia and forums covered a number of ongoing issues but also gained new ground. For example, in the session Professional Licensure: What Changes Are Needed? it was revealed that only 10% of mechanical engineers are registered P.E.s.

The forum, presented by an ad hoc committee formed by ASHRAE and the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES), was part of the effort to revamp the P.E. exam in order to register more engineers. The NCEES model exam is used by most states, but with variations. And states rights was a hotly debated topic in the forum, as nearly 50% of the states have different requirements.

One engineer, for example, who was registered in 48 states and the District of Columbia, indicated that Florida requires tax policies to encourage energy efficient high performance buildings.

Building Automation Computer Security. In another forum, computer security was addressed. One of the presenters, Mark Cherry of Honeywell, told the audience there are five myths about BAS and computer security to be aware of and address: 1) Firewall protection is enough; 2) antivirus software is enough; 3) IT is responsible for network security; 4) hackers aren’t interested in BAS; and 5) operating systems are secure enough by default.

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For more information, visit www.btusource.com .

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