ASHRAE awarded a variety of projects with its Technology Award at its annual winter conference, held in Orlando, Florida. The honoured buildings - including a refrigerated warehouse featuring an ammonia system - were singled out on the basis of incorporating innovative elements in their building design and applying the ASHRAE building standard.

A total of four buildings were recognised by ASHRAE for their innovative elements, including two office buildings, a warehouse and a university library. Among the winners was Sobey’s Warehouse, a refrigerated warehouse that incorporates a state of the art ammonia system.

Sobey’s Warehouse

A refrigerated warehouse in Trois-Riviéres, Quebec, Canada, can be a very chilly place when winter comes around. That is why designer Martin Roy worked on the balance between keeping the warehouse cold and its employees warm and comfortable, all while saving energy. An ammonia central chiller and glycol secondary distribution fluid system keeps the warehouse at 4^oC (39^oF), and can operate in free cooling mode by using the thermosiphon principle.  

Heat rejection from the warehouse chiller occurs simultaneously with space heating for the office and common spaces. These spaces are also heated by a hydronic radiant floor and cooled by fan-coils. Additionally, the warehouse includes daylighting and occupancy detectors to control high efficiency lighting fixtures and treats all of its water on-site using constructed wetlands. 

Other awarded buildings included the The Terry Thomas office building in Seattle, Washington, IDeAs Design Facility in San Jose, California, The Richard J. Klarcheck Information Commons Building in Chicago, Illinois. 

The

ASHRAE energy design

The Building EQ, the ASHRAE standard, is designed to provide a technically sound tool to rate a building energy performance and helps to characterise specific buildings that have to be renovated and require an improved energy output.