“THE CURRENT STATE OF STANDARDS AND METHODS FOR QUANTIFYING TOTAL CARBON IN HVACR APPLIANCE AND EQUIPMENT”
The Appliance and Equipment Working Group of the Taskforce for Building Decarbonization was established to review the various methods being used globally to quantify the total carbon emissions from the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) appliances and equipment being used in buildings. This presentation will review its findings in three specific areas of focus: operating carbon in terms of Life-cycle Climate Performance (LCCP), methods for estimating embodied Carbon in HVACR Components and systems, and the current state of system level efficiency and carbon performance metrics.
The first section discusses guidelines for calculating the life cycle climate performance (LCCP) of appliances and equipment within the building envelope. It explores the tools available for analyzing these systems and demonstrates the importance of sensitivity analyses to ensure the appropriate evaluation of relevant contributions in every situation. The second section reviews methods employed globally to quantify embodied carbon in MEP systems with an emphasis on heating ventilation air conditioning and refrigeration components and systems. It discusses the practical aspects and limitations of the current methods used by the industry. The third and last section is an evaluation of the state-of-the-art in system efficiency and performance metrics for appliances and equipment. After providing an overview of several of the major equipment performance standards and requirements that exist globally, it concludes their applicability to a whole-life carbon assessment or even a more limited operating carbon calculation and the need for modifying these metrics to include other areas of emissions beyond operating energy efficiency. Lastly, the presenter will summarize the conclusions from the effort and provide recommendations for the future.
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“CURRICULUM VITAE”
Bill McQuade is Vice President of Sector Services at the Air Conditioning Heating and Refrigeration Institute. He leads the team of engineers that administers the AHRI Certification programs worldwide and develops its equipment performance standards. He comes to AHRI after 26 years of working for the York International/Johnson Controls organizations in various technical, managerial, business development, and regulatory roles.
Throughout his career, he has been a very active member of our global industry. In the ASHRAE Society, he recently served as a Director-at-Large on the Board of Directors and was Society Vice President (2019-2021). Over the years, he has served on various councils and committees and chaired the subcommittee that developed the 2019-2024 ASHRAE Strategic Plan. He was Chairman of the ASHRAE Technology Council for the 2020-2021 Society year and as such was a liaison to the ASHRAE Epidemic Taskforce. A member of the ASHRAE Taskforce for Building Decarbonization in 2021-2022 and served as the Chairman of its Appliance and Equipment Standards Working Group.
A regular attendee of UN climate and ozone meetings, he has provided input to the US, EU, and Chinese governments regarding ozone and climate regulation and legislation. He was selected by the U.S. Department of State and U.S. EPA to serve as an industry representative on the Indo-U.S. Taskforce on HFCs. Also, he has served as an expert on the U.S. Department of Energy HVAC Roadmap Collaboration Team (Oak Ridge National Lab).
Bill is an ASHRAE Fellow and received the ASHRAE Distinguished Service Award in 2012. During his career, he has been awarded 18 U.S. and International patents related to chiller design, oil separation, chiller control algorithms, and leak detection for flammable refrigerants.