ASHRAE 90.1 Addenda enforcement

asked 2022-06-30 16:34:26 -0600

dradair
2478 ●7 ●20 http://google.com/

updated 2023-01-18 16:21:21 -0600

Aaron Boranian

14250 ●86 ●24 http://bigladdersoftware.com/

ASHRAE Standard 90.1 is a continuous maintenance standard. As such, there are on-going updates and addenda which are proposed, public commented, and approved/published. The question is when do these addenda become 'enforceable' as part of the standard? There are typically >100 addenda per cycle which are approved, but have not found any clear direction dictating when these go into effect.

One argument would state that the addenda are not part of the enforced version of the code. If were to go buy a version of this standard or view it on a hosting service like TechStreet those would reflect the standard at the time of original publication and not the numerous addenda. Now, the burned is on me/user to review all added for any potential changes to the standard, just to follow the standard. At that point, why not just use the newer/next published version of the standard which includes all previous addenda?

The counter to this is that it's as soon as they are published, addenda are in effect. This poses practical limitations as an AHJ could have adopted a code with no means of knowing what addenda may subsequently get published. [Ex: ASHRAE 90.1-2019 is current standard, but there is no way to know what all addenda could be added before the 2022 version is published.] Further, I have not found a source for 'living' documents which incorporate addenda on an on-going basis. But, this is the only way for the standard to reflect the current direction from the SSPC.

Most AHJ's from what I have seen are not enumerating which addenda are to be included or not, as part of their adopted code. Is there an 'official' interpretation from ASHRAE / ICC / NFPA on addenda to code?

Note - the same could be assumed/asked about 62.1 / 55 / any of the other continuous maintenance standards.

answered 2022-07-01 07:55:44 -0600

Denis Bourgeois
2981 ●111 ●8 http://www.rd2.ca

The following is an attempt to answer 2 of your questions. More knowledgeable individuals, in particular state/municipal authorities in the US, would be in a better position than I am to pursue the Q&A.

when do these addenda become 'enforceable' as part of the standard?

Enforcement (of what is/isn't part of the referenced Standard) has more to do with the authority (e.g., state/municipality, GSA, USGBC), than the Standard itself. My understanding is that, unless explicitly stated otherwise, authorities wouldn't consider addenda to a Standard as part of the Standard (I suspect this would be different for errata). Approved addenda make their way into the next iteration, as stated in the Standard foreword ("All approved addenda and errata are included in the new edition" and "More than 125 addenda to the 2013 edition of the standard were processed by the committee and approved by the ASHRAE and IES Boards of Directors and are incorporated into the 2016 edition.").

there is no way to know what all addenda could be added before the 2022 version is published

Here? or Techstreet's My Tracker? I get that it would be nice to have the option of selecting a date (or addendum) and have the Standard printed out as if it had integrated the addendum (similar to how CVS solutions like Git can show different states of a document when moving from one commit to another). A nice to have, maybe.

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Comments

Thank you for clear & measured response. That all makes sense in the scheme of the authority being the enforcement mechanism.

fully agree on errata. those are correct mistakes (printing, clerical, etc)

clarification on on the #2 question of future addenda - i mean addenda that aren't even drafted yet. ex: if AHJ adopts ASHRAE 90.1-2022, there's no real means of knowing that addenda might be published in 2023 or 2024. Which are addenda to 90.1-2022, but are they 'enforceable'. seems...murky.

the idea of a github style document is interesting, but need clear direction to users