A safe transition to low-GWP refrigerants in the US is made more complex by the Montreal Protocol, the original international treaty finalized in 1987 to phase down Ozone Depleting Substances, or ODS, which included HFC predecessors CFCs and HCFCs. The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol amended the international treaty in 2016 to reduce greenhouse
Category: Buildings
In the previous post, we looked at the global path to a safe transition to low-GWP refrigerants, and the impact that actions by states like California are having on creating a patchwork of regulations and move us toward the use of highly flammable refrigerants. Here, I trace how the move impacts standards and codes, as
The global transition to low-GWP refrigerants is beginning in a disorderly manner in the United States — the world’s most mature HVAC market. In the absence of a federal framework, individual states are beginning to regulate HFCs. A handful of states are following SNAP Rules 20 and 21, the EPA regulations that were vacated by
Central to the life and operation of any community is its infrastructure. From its roads and other transportation platforms to its sewers and waste treatment facilities, and from its telecommunications and power generation and distribution networks to its building stock, a community’s infrastructure not only defines its quality of life in the moment, but also
The American building stock as a whole turns over at a rate of only one percent per year. Transformation that takes a century to complete is not transformation. That means the existing building stock needs to be retrofitted for efficiency and resilience—and those retrofits need to be deep. With the lack of federal leadership, states
The dialogue on buildings and energy is quickly shifting. Not that many years ago the focus was on the push for more efficient equipment—an HVAC unit with a higher SEER. Then came the recognition that such progress had both practical limits and limits written into the laws of physics. Attention began to shift to systems thinking—how
Currently, 282 cities have signed on to the ‘We Are Still In’ Group, and in support, the C40 Cities initiative (now actually 94 cities around the globe) and American Cities Climate Challenge are just two of the organizations that provide for cities to share best practices. Among those best practices are energy benchmarking and disclosure
If you’ve been in facility management long enough, you’ve encountered a few of these problems before: variable speed pumps that run close to 100% much of the time; a chiller that labors with low Delta T; or, worst of all, complaints of hot and cold spots in occupied spaces. So, what do you do? Look
One of the barriers to the new refrigerants is the recognition of flammable refrigerants in building codes. Codes dictate so much about building construction and what mechanical equipment can be used. There are codes for fire protection, building construction, mechanical systems, and other aspects of buildings; all affect the HVACR system. A good article on
In our last post, we looked at the potential for resilient infrastructure and began to consider how stakeholders of high-performance buildings have a strong hand in shaping such a future. The effort to generate support for investment in energy efficiency on the scale required for genuine resilience is, at best, a work in progress. And
