ASHRAE Journal - December 2021 - 7

INDUSTRY NEWS
new manufacturing facilities will prove to not get an
adequate return on investment if demand for MERV 13
drops. I expect that question to be answered by the end
of 2022, and based upon what I am seeing in the market
now, I don't expect a huge drop off in MERV 13 demand, "
he said. " I expect the trend in 2022 will be for MERV 13 to
become institutionalized as the standard fi lter for many
of the clients that began using them due to COVID. "
MERV 13 will continue to be a featured technology in
2022, according to Joe Lstiburek, Ph.D., P.Eng., Fellow
ASHRAE, adding that several COVID-19 mitigation
efforts include increasing interior relative humidity
(RH), ventilation rates and room fi ltration air change.
" Increasing RH is going to be a disaster in existing
homes and buildings during the winter in cold climates.
Increasing ventilation rates is going to be a huge issue
with part-load humidity in hot-humid and mixedhumid
climates requiring supplemental dehumidifi cation
and is going to be a huge issue with excessive dryness
in cold climates during the heating season requiring
humidifi cation, " said Lstiburek.
He said humidifi cation can be dangerous to occupants
when poor humidifi ers are used, and increasing ventilation
rates everywhere are going to be a huge energy penalty
unless energy recovery ventilation (ERV) systems are
used. " Increasing room fi ltration air change is a much
better approach to dealing with COVID than increasing
ventilation rates, " he said.
Eyes on the Environmental Side
Another long-standing industry trend is predicted to
continue into the new year: building decarbonization
and reducing carbon emissions. McConahey said net
zero carbon buildings, decarbonizing existing buildings
through electrifi cation and deep energy-effi ciency technologies
and low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants
becoming available for heat pumps and chillers
are essential to supporting global climate action.
" In addition, I would predict that increased attention
to the use of water for evaporative cooling will need
attention in some parts of the world where potable water
creation has a high carbon intensity-like the Southwest
U.S., " she said. " I would estimate that increased use of
demand shifting through smart building controls and
a combination of electrical and thermal energy storage
will become more prevalent to help owners avoid highcarbon
electricity if they are not already buying green
Erin McConahey. P.E., HBDP
Fellow ASHRAE
power. "
As far as a technology to help decarbonization efforts,
heat pumps come to mind. " Heat pumps for water heating
domestic and smaller heat pump replacements for
gas-fi red furnaces are the most essential elements to
support decarbonization of buildings, " McConahey said,
adding that the rise of hydrogen alternative for combustion-based
heating is another replacement technology
to track.
On the other hand, McConahey said she thinks the
traditional means of life-cycle cost analysis that looks
only at operational energy will wane and be replaced
with whole life carbon assessments that include both
operational and embodied carbon. " Similarly, total cost
of ownership will need to expand to include the cost of
carbon offsets for those owners who have committed to
net zero carbon performance. "
ASHRAE established its Task Force for Building
Decarbonization this past spring, bringing together a
group of experts to strategize how building owners and
operators can work to reduce carbon emissions, said
Schwedler.
" We are going to require global collaboration and
outreach. We have realized during the pandemic that
we are in the same world with everybody else. That is
true, whether it's in respect to environment, emissions,
whether it has to do with health issues [or] whether it
has to do with getting the materials people need in order
to build and update their buildings, " said Schwedler.
As industry groups are deciding how to decrease building
carbon emissions, the cost of heating fuel, including
natural gas, has increased.
" I think people should really start focusing on more
effi cient heating systems. We've really focused on the
effi ciency of cooling systems and getting those seasonal
energy effi ciency ratio (SEER) numbers up nice and high
or higher than they have been. I think there's going to be
D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 1 ashrae.o rg ASHRAE JOURNAL
7
Mike Gallagher, P.E.,
Fellow ASHRAE
Joe Lstiburek, Ph.D., P.Eng.,
Fellow ASHRAE
https://www.ashrae.org/ https://www.ashrae.org/
ASHRAE Journal - December 2021

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