Meeting Re-Cap 9/14/2010

Thanks to all who attended the September meeting! We had a great crowd of 73 and I saw many faces who were either new, or had not attended a meeting in a while. I give much credit to our two great speakers and their presentations.

Our theme, Indoor Environmental Quality Night, included presentations primarily focused on thermal comfort and natural ventilation. The first presentation given by Salman Ilyas, a mechanical engineer from Arup (Los Angeles, CA), was a summary of his master's thesis research at the University of Washington entitled "Using Experimental Techniques to Evaluate the Natural Ventilation Function in a Building." His project studied a naturally ventilated architecture studio building on campus that has been in operation for about 100 years. A series of ongoing measurements and tests were performed to identify indoor air quality issues such as carbon monoxide, helium bubble test (to identify where air was flowing through the space), and surveys of the occupants. There were many questions during the Q&A. In fact, we had to cut them short due to time. For any additional questions contact Salman Ilyas at Arup (310) 578-4400 or at salman.ilyas@arup.com.

The second presentation by Peter Simmonds, Associate at IBE Consulting Engineers (Sherman Oaks, CA) and ASHRAE Fellow, covered Adaptive Thermal Comfort, more specifically his work with and in some cases criticisms of certain parts of ASHRAE Standard 55. His first question was how many have read the standard? (Many hands) His second question was how many really understand it? (Few hands) I, myself have not had the opportunity to fully understand the application and use of the standard, especially for naturally ventilated buildings. Peter discussed his work and his interpretations of the standard. One of his main discussion points was the ambiguity of the operative temperature including: how it is determined for different applications; how to specifically document compliance with the standard; and what other design and performance criteria should we be using beyond the Standard to ensure the building is really achieving comfort. I would challenge you all to have a look and make your own interpretations and inferences. Also, be on the lookout for the 2010 version of Standard 55. If you have any questions contact Peter Simmonds at IBE Consulting Engineers (818)-377-8220 or at peter.simmonds@ibece.net.

We hope to see you all at the next meeting where we will be having two more great speakers and topics. See the details on the front article.

Jeffrey Landreth
Pres-Elect