The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) is funding research in thermal comfort in commercial kitchens. A 2005 report by the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York and the New York City Restaurant Industry Coalition found that, "Nearly half of the 530 workers surveyed reported that it gets unsafely hot in the kitchen where they work."
The research will include walk-in surveys and on-site data collection in operational commercial kitchens in selected cities across the United States.
ASHRAE is accepting proposals on this and 16 other proposed research projects. Submissions are due May 18. For more information, visit www.ashrae.org/research.
The projects are scheduled to begin Sept. 1. Projects are:
• 1339-RFP, Selection of Desiccant Equipment at Altitude, sponsoring technical committee: TC 8.12, Desiccant Dehumidification Equipment and Components
• 1369-TRP, Design Guidelines to Prevent Snow Causing Shutdown of HVAC Systems, sponsoring technical committee: TC 5.2, Duct Design
• 1385-TRP, Development of Design Tools for Surface Water Heat Pump Systems (SWHP), sponsoring technical committee: TC 6.8, Geothermal Energy Utilization
• 1404-TRP, Measurement, Modeling, Analysis and Reporting Protocols for Short-term M&V of Whole Building Energy Performance, sponsoring technical committee: TC 4.7, Energy Calculations
• 1409-TRP, Stability of Candidate Lubricants for CO2 Refrigeration, sponsoring technical committee: TC 3.2, System Chemistry
• 1413-TRP, Developing Standard Procedures for Filling Climatic Data Gaps for Use in Building Performance Monitoring and Analysis, sponsoring technical committee: TC 4.2, Climatic Information
• 1415-TRP, Thermal and Lighting Performance Metrics of Tubular Daylighting Devices, sponsoring technical committee: TC 4.5, Fenestration
• 1420-TRP, Inlet and Discharge Installation Effects on Airfoil (AF) Centrifugal PLENUM/PLUG Fans for Air and Sound Performance, sponsoring technical committee: TC 5.1, Fans
• 1448-TRP, Ventilation Requirements for Refrigerating Machinery Rooms, sponsoring technical committee: TC 4.3, Ventilation Requirements & Infiltration
• 1467-TRP, Balancing Latent Heat Load Between Display Cases and Store Comfort Cooling, sponsoring technical committee: TC 10.7, Commercial Food Display and Storage Equipment
• 1469-TRP, Thermal Comfort in Commercial Kitchens, sponsoring technical committee: TC 5.10, Kitchen Ventilation
• 1478-TRP, Measuring Air-tightness of Mid- and High-Rise Non-residential Buildings, sponsoring technical committee: TC 4.3, Ventilation Requirements and Infiltration
• 1507-TRP, Binary Refrigerant Flame Boundary Concentrations, sponsoring technical committee: TC 3.1, Refrigerants and Secondary Coolants
• 1512-TRP, CFD Resource Decisions in Particle Transport Modeling, sponsoring technical committee: TC 4.10, Indoor Environmental Modeling
• 1515-TRP, Thermal and Air Quality Acceptability in Buildings that Reduce Energy by Reducing Minimum Airflow from Overhead Diffusers, sponsoring technical committee: TC 2.1, Physiology and Human Comfort
• 1522-TRP, Establishment of Design Procedures to Predict Room Airflow Requirements in Partially Mixed Room Air Distribution Systems, sponsoring technical committee: TC 5.3, Room Air Distribution
• 1544-TRP, Establishing Benchmark Levels and Patterns of Commercial Building Hot Water Use, sponsoring technical committee: TC 6.6, Service Water Systems