Did you know there is a silent “R” in ASHRAE? Well actually there is no such thing, but when you hear it enough in the hallowed halls of ASHRAE it makes you question its validity.
Refrigeration proponents the world over have long complained that ASHRAE treats refrigeration as the ill-gotten step child. Hence, the Silent “R”. Playing devil’s advocate, I’ll present both sides of the debate. Firstly, ASHRAE has roughly 100 Technical Committees (TC’s), Task Groups (TG’s) and Technical Resource Groups (TRG’s) which constitute our technical grassroots. Out of these 100 committees, only 10 are dedicated to the field of refrigeration. Now there may be some committees which would apply to both HVAC and refrigeration, but you can easily identify who is BIG brother. Well take the ASHRAE society presidential themes over the years; we must have had one in the last ten years centered on refrigeration!
On the other hand, ASHRAE recognizes multiple sister organizations which share some of the heavy lifting. These organizations all bring their own specialties to the table. The ASHRAE website lists these organizations as,
International Institute of Ammonia Refrigeration (www.iiar.org)
International Institute of Refrigeration (www.iifiir.org)
Refrigeration Engineers and Technicians Association (www.reta.com)
Refrigeration Services Engineers Society (www.rses.org)
ASHRAE in turn brings a lot of heavy research to the field of refrigeration. We put a lot of volunteer resources and money into refrigeration publications like the refrigeration handbook (last edition 2010), Standard 15, Standard 34, technical papers and monthly ASHRAE journal articles. Our last month’s interview with refrigeration expert Roberto Aguilo also confirmed that we are making concrete steps in the right direction.
Well we at Central Florida are forever going to banish the notion of the silent “R”. Hence the start of our “Not-So-Silent R” series……..
From now till the end of the year we will be posting one refrigeration problem on our webpage. You will be required to pull out your pencil, paper, calculator, pressure-enthalpy chart, vapor compression diagram and come up with the answer. The first person to get it right, gets a free dinner at our next technical meeting ($ 25 value) courtesy EMCOR-MSI. Let’s create awareness about refrigeration and also have some fun along the way.
Think you’re smart enough to tackle the first problem? Click here -> www.ashrae-cfl.org. Look under “Recent Posts” for a post titled, Not-So-SILENT “R” – Q#1
Wait no further……..Hurry up! and Good Luck.
By, Jason Alphonso, Refrigeration Chair, 2010-2011
