Sustainable Energy Action Committee > Clean Energy Clearinghouse

Clean Energy Educational Resources

No matter where you find yourself in your career, all clean energy stakeholders—including authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs), fire departments, clean energy contractors, manufacturers and suppliers, electric utilities, building owners, facility managers, and others—benefit from current and timely information related to renewable energy developments. This Clean Energy Clearinghouse offers access to free educational resources and CEU bearing courses to make sure you have the information you need, when you need it. 

Please note: You may have to scroll down on some CEU bearing course links in order to access all relevant information.

EMPOWERED Solutions Clean Energy Question of the Week

Check out this week’s question and answer below. Come back each Monday to explore something new about distributed energy resources. Read previous questions and answers about solar, storage, electric vehicles, and efficient building technology here.

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What is ASHRAE Guideline 36 and why is it important?

Are you a facility operator, energy manager, or part of the e facility management engineering or project management teams? If so, you’ve likely come across ASHRAE Guideline 36-2021, High-Performance Sequences of Operation for HVAC Systems. This guideline is the industry’s first attempt to standardize best-in-class building control sequences for energy savings and more efficient building control system specification, design, and implementation.

ASHRAE Guideline 36 provides a set of standardized advanced sequences of operation for common HVAC systems. These sequences are designed to maximize the energy efficiency and performance of HVAC systems, while also meeting ASHRAE occupant thermal comfort and ventilation standards, providing control stability, and allowing for simple real-time fault detection for air handling units. More importantly, with more and more building control system manufacturers adopting the guideline, control program “libraries,” or templates that comply with the guideline, are now available for control contractors to use in projects. This can greatly reduce the time and effort of building control software implementation while minimizing the programming errors. 

Learn More:

If you are looking for ways to improve the energy efficiency of your HVAC systems, we encourage you to listen in to this recorded webinar ASHRAE Guideline 36: High-Performance Sequences of Operation for HVAC Systems, where we focus on the  intent, benefits, and scope of ASHRAE Guideline 36, as well as the stakeholders involved in designing and implementing the guideline. The webinar also highlights the key control sequence concepts that have the greatest impact on energy savings in this guideline, including AHU static pressure resets through trim and respond method, dual-max controls for VAV terminal unit with reheat, and automated fault detection and diagnostics (AFDD) for air handling units. Finally, we discuss how to screen your buildings to see if they are a good candidate for a controls retrofit leveraging Guideline 36. Tune in today and learn from our expert presenters.

Category: High Performance Buildings
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Training Solutions from EMPOWERED Partner: Southface Institute

  • Model Codes and Distributed Energy Resources (Free CEU Online Course). Model codes set the standards for buildings and infrastructure. They are key to understanding distributed energy resources (DERs; solar panels, electric vehicles, and home weatherization, etc.) that consumers use to generate and manage energy on site.
  • Utilities, DERs, and Interconnection (Interactive PDF; Article). In this course, learn about the role of distributed energy resources (DERs) in the energy sector and interconnected processes with utilities. Homeowners, government officials, developers, and other community members can benefit from understanding the changing dynamics between utilities and (DERs) on the customer end of utility transmission and distribution systems.
  • High Performance Building Solutions: HVAC and Mechanical Code Training (Free CEU Online Course). Code officials must understand high-performance HVAC and mechanical systems to effectively address issues with inconsistent code compliance that occur when these systems are renovated or replaced. Learn how to select and assess proper installation and verification of HVAC and mechanical systems prior to adding other distributed energy resources.
  • High Performance Building Solutions: Building Envelope Code Training (Free CEU Online Course). Use of distributed energy resources (DERs) is growing in small to mid-sized commercial buildings, driven by incentives like the Inflation Reduction Act. Architects and code officials must know the fundamentals of design, specification, and verification of high-performance building envelopes. This training will comprehensively address commercial high-performance building envelopes, including benefits and key code considerations.

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Need more information, have questions, feedback, or suggestions for future resources? Contact us at [email protected].

The Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) in partnership with the International Code Council, International Association of Electrical Inspectors, National Association of State Fire Marshals, Slipstream, Florida Solar Energy Center, South-Central Partnership for Energy Efficiency as a Resource, Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, New Buildings Institute, Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships, Southface Institute, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory assembled these resources to provide you with up-to-date, reliable, vetted information and training related to existing and emerging technologies.