Dubai, UAE, 14 March 2019: A team from ASHRAE, led by Dr Ahmed Ala’a Eldin Mohamed, Director and Regional Chair, Region At Large (RAL), Board of Directors, ASHRAE, recently translated the ASHRAE Standard 55-2017, on Thermal Environmental Conditions, to Arabic. Elaborating on the reason for translating the standard, Osama Khayata, Translator and General Coordinator, ASHRAE member, said: “Indoor thermal comfort, especially in hot and humid zones, such as the GCC region, is an issue and is not being addressed sufficiently right from the design stage of a building.” Elaborating, he said, that after having translated Standard 62.1 to Arabic, the team decided that it was time to work on ASHRAE Standard 55 and bring its content to Arabic speakers. “The translation of Standard 55,” he said, “will help raise awareness of its requirements, especially since the Standard has been partially implemented by government bodies such as the Dubai Municipality.”

Pointing to another aspect, Mohammad Al Hemide, Translator, ASHRAE member, said: “Standard 55 specifies the acceptable conditions for thermal environments, and its use can be found in design, operation and commissioning of buildings, in addition to other occupied spaces.” Adding, he said, that the Standard addresses six factors to achieving thermal comfort – the metabolic rate, clothing insulation, air temperature, radiant temperature, air speed and humidity. Highlighting how the majority of issues related to thermal discomfort arise, he said that appropriate air temperature, humidity and air speed have a vital role to play, and the Standard will help design engineers understand thermal comfort conditions better.

However, Standard 55 has been re-written since the year 2013. Highlighting the changes brought to it, Khayata said, “The requirements of the 2017 edition of the ASHRAE Standard 55 have been simplified and clarify the three comfort calculation approaches in Section 5.3.3 ‘Elevated Air Speed’.” The 2017 edition, he added, includes new requirements needed to calculate the change in thermal comfort from direct solar radiation.

Elaborating on how achieving thermal satisfaction within an indoor space is essential for good IAQ, Mohammed Khalil Haleemeh, Translator, ASHRAE member, said: “Thermal satisfaction is one of the challenges that the HVAC designer faces during the design process.” However, he added, thermal satisfaction depends on many factors, two of them are the metabolic rate and clothing insulation. “These factors vary,” he said, “depending on a person’s activity and the clothes he wears.” Elaborating, he said, that means in some cases, it is not possible to find one set of conditions suitable for everyone at the same time.