EVENTS & EDUCATION

The Varitec Hub: Events, Webinars & Resources

Welcome to The Varitec Hub—your central place to connect with everything Varitec has to offer. From live events and upcoming trainings to our growing library of on-demand webinar recordings, this hub keeps you informed and engaged with the latest in HVAC systems, controls, and industry insights. Whether you’re here to register for an event, catch up on past sessions, or request additional resources, The Varitec Hub makes it easy to stay connected.

Upcoming Events & Live Sessions

Browse Our Webinar Library

Catch up on past sessions from our Webinar Wednesday series and other technical trainings—available anytime, on demand.

ASHRAE standards and guidelines are rapidly expanding to reduce HVAC system greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) to levels at 50% below 2015 levels by 2030 and expressed goal to be net zero GHG by 2050, if not sooner. One HVAC system being proposed to help ASHRAE meet their objectives are all electric variable refrigerant heat pump systems. However, DX systems are undergoing a transition to refrigerants with lower global warming potential (GWP). The industry is moving away from high GWP refrigerants, such as R-410A, to lower GWP refrigerants such as R-32. Lower GWP refrigerants, however, per ASHRAE Standard 34 fall under an A2L semi-flammable classification, classification that has raised an element of safety concerns. The good news, R-32 refrigerants are more efficient than refrigerants with lower GWP refrigerants that could create more GHG emissions over the operating life of a building. However, building codes are being modified to architecturally address the A2L classification to reduce safety concerns over “semi-flammable” terminology, that could incur new architectural considerations and possible design costs.

Dan Hahne, Director of High-Performance HVAC Solutions will present Designing and Controlling A2L Refrigerant Variable Refrigerant Systems that will address the following topics:

· The history of refrigerants and the move to A2L classifications

· ASHRAE Standard 34 and Standard 15

- Interpreting refrigerant nomenclature

- Refrigerant Concentration Levels (RCL) proposed by Standard 15

· The current transition schedule for replacing old refrigerants with low GWP refrigerants for packaged DX equipment and chillers

· IMC and UBC building code language for A2L refrigerant systems

· A brief review of variable refrigerant systems

· How to optimize variable refrigerant systems by decoupling the outside component

· How to control and optimize variable refrigerant systems in the Desert Southwest

Webinar Designing and Controlling VRV with A2L

ASHRAE formed its Task Force for Building Decarbonization in 2021 and released its Position Document in 2022, outlining a path to reduce GHG emissions from the built environment—responsible for 40% of global emissions. The document emphasizes holistic strategies that balance energy efficiency, comfort, health, and sustainability. Dan Hahne, Varitec’s Director of High-Performance HVAC Solutions, will present the science, ASHRAE’s role, and actionable strategies to help the industry meet 2030 and 2050 net-zero targets.

In Spring 2021, under the leadership of then-President Chuck Gulledge and President-Elect Mick Schwedler, ASHRAE formed its Task Force for Building Decarbonization. This initiative gained further momentum on June 26, 2022, with the publication of ASHRAE’s Position Document on Building Decarbonization.

The abstract of the document clearly reflects ASHRAE’s commitment:

“The position document recommends embracing building decarbonization strategies to reduce building greenhouse gases (GHGs).”
This urgency is well-founded—buildings account for approximately 40% of global GHG emissions. The position document goes beyond simply advocating for emission reductions. It outlines that decarbonization must be approached holistically, considering not only GHG reductions, but also factors such as health, safety, comfort, energy efficiency, environmental impact, sustainability, operational resilience, and economics.

The stakes are high. With the global building stock expected to double by 2060, the document sets clear benchmarks:

By 2030, the built environment must halve its 2015 GHG emissions, with all new buildings operating at net-zero emissions.
By 2050, all new and existing buildings must achieve net-zero GHG emissions across their entire life cycles.

Dan Hahne, Varitec’s Director of High-Performance HVAC Solutions, will provide an in-depth overview of the Position Document and what it means for our industry. His presentation will cover:

The science and drivers linking climate change to GHG emissions
The key motivators behind ASHRAE’s decarbonization efforts
Why ASHRAE is uniquely positioned to lead this transformation
Current standards and initiatives supporting decarbonization
Practical carbon reduction strategies for the built environment
Challenges, policy positions, and recommendations
1 PDH and 1 AIA HSW

Webinar Building Decarbonization ASHRAE’s Position, Purpose, and Plan

Webinar: ASHRAE Guideline 36 - Sequences for Medium Pressure VAV Systems

The presenter will give an overview of the latest (and projected) environmental transformations due to climate change, answer the question “Who or What Really Causes Climate Change”, and finish with a summary of how it is affecting (and will affect) the world, the United States, and especially the Southwest.

Webinar: Climate Change: Myths & Reality...

Buildings are not merely static enclosures. More appropriately, they are dynamic, “living” structures that expand and contract while creating protective and sustaining environments. To support these environments, mechanical systems have been referred to as a building’s cardiovascular system supplying vital air to each zone. However, to offset building energy and humidity gain, airflow must be served at the appropriate design conditions and required flow rates to satisfy space loads.

Building automation systems (BAS) provide such control and can be thought of as a building’s nervous system that governs and assigns mechanical equipment operating modes to assure space temperature and humidity are maintained throughout the year while consuming only that amount of energy to do so. However, assigning appropriate sequences of operation (SOO) to building automation systems (BAS), historically, have been created independently by engineering design groups. Many of these SOOs have lacked clarity and uniformity compromising building performance and efficiency. ASHRAE’s Guideline 36 was created to provide formatted SOOs for high-performance HVAC systems to be evaluated and scripted into specifications by engineers to meet owner and design performance goals efficiently.

Dan Hahne, Director of High-Performance HVAC Solutions will present on ASHRAE Guideline 36 and review:

Buildings as Living Structures and System Control
ASHRAE Guideline Purpose, Scope and Intent
Guideline Flexibility and Application during project design
Hardware Points Lists and Read and Read Write Designations
Mechanical System List SOO review:
Medium Pressure VAV Systems
Hot Water Plants and Fan Coil Control
Chilled Water Central Plant Review
Future Guideline 36 development and intent

Webinar: ASHRAE Guideline 36

Nortek Air Solutions Temtrol Custom AHU Lift

Dr. Taylor presents real-time data that presents strategies on improving the health of building occupants while reducing building energy consumption. We spend the majority of our time indoors, yet there is little information relating human physiology to indoor spaces. She will reveal new data on occupant health and the indoor environment, and will turn preexisting views on indoor air management, design of inhabited spaces and surface cleaning upside down! Learn how indoor spaces can truly support human health and get ready to be totally amazed by the healing potential of the built environment.

Webinar: Engineers Are Our True Physicians

There are four modes of heat (energy) transfer: conduction, convection, radiation and material phase change, i.e. evaporation/condensation. Conventional HVAC systems apply two modes of heat transfer; conduction (air passing across cooling and heating coils), and evaporation (direct and indirect evaporative cooling or refrigerant phase changes within a vapor-compression cycle; i.e. chillers and DX equipment.) Both conventional heat transfer modes require energy (kW) to transfer energy (Btu). However, what if all four modes of heat transfer are applied to an MEP design. Passively exploiting the second law of thermodynamics (“heat energy always flows spontaneously from hotter to colder regions of matter…”) by creating thermally stratified environments using underfloor air technology and applying hydronic radiant components locally at each zone enables the properties of physics to assume much, if not most, of the heat transfer work load. Such a design approach is conducive to premium system efficiency while creating superior indoor air quality (IAQ); an excellent design solution to meet ASHRAE’s expanding HVAC objectives to create healthier more efficient buildings.

Dan Hahne, Varitec’s Director of High-Performance HVAC Solutions, will present on:

The promise and possibility of heat transfer
The principles of convection and radiation
Convection and radiation heat transfer within a building space
Thermally stratified environments
Underfloor air systems, application & design considerations
Radiant cooling and heating technology and application
The mutual advantages of combining radiant cooling and heating with 100% OSA underfloor air systems to promote another level of system efficiency and healthier environments for building occupants.

Webinar: The Promise & Possibility of Heat Transfer - 100% OSA Underfloor-Radiant Systems

The pandemic brought to the construction industry a deeper awareness and dialog on how best to reduce the risk of infection within the built environment. To create healthier buildings, ASHRAE, the CDC, and the EPA advocate a number of recommendations including increasing a building's outside air flow rates. Most proposed solutions, however, add to a building's operating costs at a time when our developing national imperative is moving toward carbon neutrality. Are HVAC design solutions available that allow for reducing the infection risk through ventilation while increasing operational efficiency?

Varitec's Dan Hahne, Director of High-Performance HVAC Solutions, will evaluate one such promising technology; variable refrigerant systems. Working with Varitec's engineering support and Daikin's energy modeling and engineering groups, three VRV design concepts were laid out and assessed for a 28,000 ft² medical office building in our Sonoran Desert Climate Zone. One design applied untempered outside air ducted into fan coil return air plenums. The other two layouts used a decoupled 100% OSA configuration; one supplying moderate dew point outside air, the second low dew point outside air. A dedicated outside air approach not only offers more effective distribution of outside air throughout a a building in conformance to ASHRAE Standard 62.1 requirements, DOAS also allows for VRV system downsizing resulting in performance optimization and increased energy efficiency wit the added benefit of effective humidity control for environments conducive to maintaining occupant health while reducing the risk of infect.

Webinar: 100% OSA Systems With Variable Refrigerant Technology

Part 1 demonstrated the psychrometric chart “is HVAC” and how the chart is a necessary “reference” tool for determining the properties of air at various conditions called “state points” and graphically illustrates the energy (enthalpy) present within given samples. Part #1 also provided term definitions for each state point; i.e. dry bulb and wet bulb temperatures, dew point, specific humidity, relative humidity…etc.

Psychrometrics Part #2 will provide a brief review of these terms and begin where the previous session ended and examine in greater detail how tempered air properties change and energy levels are affected during HVAC processes listed below.

Topics to be covered are:

Provide a brief review of air sample “state” points; dry bulb, wet bulb, dew point…
Applying ASHRAE’s psychrometric software graphics, illustrate outside air and building air state points and consequent mixed-air condition using 20% outside for Sonoran Desert design conditions
Demonstrate the psychrometric process for a conventional VAV cooling coils and energy required to reheat air at a VAV box
Demonstrate the challenge when attempting to control humidity using 55F DB / 54F WB supply air during monsoon conditions
Demonstrate the psychrometric process and heat recovery effectiveness for sensible and enthalpy applications
Demonstrate the psychrometric process of an AHU serving a displacement ventilation system, i.e. 65F DB off the cooling coil
Demonstrate the psychrometric process for custom 100% DOAS units for proper dehumidification, enhanced energy efficiency

Webinar: Psychrometrics Deconstructed Part 2

The federal government and ASHRAE are continuing to advocate for building designs that consume less energy, provide improved thermal comfort and maintain better “Indoor Environmental Quality” (IEQ) for healthier occupants. To succeed in achieving these goals, it is essential design teams understand the properties of air and how HVAC systems play a key role in meeting these stated objectives. The psychrometric chart is a primary tool for determining these properties at various reference points called “state points”, the energy contained within a sample of air, and how the chart can be applied to evaluate system processes required to maintain humidity and thermal comfort by moving discrete amounts of energy to (heating) or from (cooling) a building. It might be said the psychrometric (“psych”) chart is HVAC.

Dan Hahne, Director of High-Performance HVAC Solutions, will present Psychrometrics Deconstructed of Varitec’s HVAC Fundamentals curriculum to:

Provide a brief history of the psych chart
Review air property terms and definitions relevant to the use of the chart
Deconstruct the chart to locate and examine which lines illustrate various air “state points” and then rebuild it
Define an air sample’s enthalpy in BTUs, the amount of energy present within the sample
Review how a psych chart can illustrate system processes required to move energy from pre- to post- air “state points”, an understanding necessary to properly size equipment to meet a building’s total load.

Psychrometrics Decontructed Part 1

On March 6th 2024, the Federal Register published an article to publicly notify the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has reviewed and issued the determination that ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-2022 will improve commercial building energy efficiency. The “DOE analysis indicates that buildings meeting Standard 90.1-2022, as compared with those meeting the previous 2019 edition, would result in a national average site energy savings of 9.8 percent of commercial building energy consumption…” However, many, if not most, Southwestern municipalities have adopted code IECC-2018 (Standard 90.1-2016) and IMC-2018 if not earlier code editions. The 2022 Standard edition has 89 amendments to the 2019 Standard plus another group of amendments brought forth in the 2019 version compared to the 2016 Standard still adopted by most “Authorities Having Jurisdiction”.

Varitec’s Director of High-Performance HVAC Solutions, Dan Hahne will present on:

The DOE’s Energy Savings Analysis report published in February 2024 that communicates the reasons for its “determination”
Identify the relationship between IECC and Standard 90.1 and list current code editions many Arizona Municipalities have adopted
Review purpose and scope of Standard 90.1-2022
Review the Standard’s Section 4 Compliance language and identify new design requirements defined by the Standard
Examine code language changes and additions compared to Standard 90.1-2016; i.e. building envelopes, heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems, power,
Explore how Standard 90.1-2022 will impact HVAC designs by lowering thermal (sensible) energy loads and, consequently, building air flow rates.
Review Normative Appendix G and Appendix I: Performance Rating Method and other metrics in conjunction with Appendix G and, if time permits, other influencing appendices
ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2022 webinar qualifies for (1) AIA HSW/LU CES credit or (1) Professional Engineer Development Hour PDH credit

Webinar: ASHRAE 90.1

Understanding Building Automation Controls can be daunting. However, with the majority of a building’s energy being taken up by HVAC, it can’t be ignored. Let us help you manage your facility better with the basics. We’ll walk through the a brief history, and then move into the basics which includes hardware, software, architecture of system, control loops. The end, you will be introduced to the future of the industry, Smart Buildings and Division 25 which drives integrated automation.

Webinar: The Fundamentals of Controls

The EPA, CDC and ASHRAE advocate for increasing a building's outside air (OSA) rate to reduce the risk of infection and to improve indoor air quality. ASHRAE’s recently released new standard, Standard 241-2023 Control of Infectious Aerosols, states buildings are to provide additional requirements referenced as Infection Risk Management Mode (IRMM). Requirements for IRMM are given in terms of equivalent clean airflow (ECAi) in units of flow per occupant to each zone. ECAi can be achieved by increasing outdoor air rates or by incorporating into a HVAC system design prescribed technologies as reviewed by the standard. However, increasing OSA rates for conventional HVAC systems results in higher operating costs at a time when the construction industry is moving quickly toward carbon neutral building designs to meet the AIA’s 2030 Commitment and MEP 2030 initiatives.

This presentation demonstrates why properly designed 100% OSA systems can be more energy efficient even when designed with greater OSA airflow rates to meet the new ECAi flow rates assigned by Standard 241-2023’s with an added benefit of providing superior indoor air quality during normal times of operation.

This presentation will review:

IAQ contaminants in conventional buildings and the impact on human health
Reviewing language from the EPA, CDC and ASHRAE that advocate for increasing outside air rates including a general review of ASHRAE Standard 241-2023 and Equivalent Clean Air flow rates and what HVAC system designs or applied technologies will qualify for ECAi prescriptive flow rates
What is a 100% Outside Air (OSA) System and how does it’s layout differ from a conventional HVAC systems
Review various 100% OSA system design concepts, i.e. active and passive chilled beams, passive radiant cooling and heating systems, VRV and underfloor air systems, and why they are more energy efficient than conventional systems while achieving better indoor environmental quality (IEQ).
How building first costs can be reduced by reducing the mechanical and, consequently, architectural footprints.

Webinar: 100% Outside Air Systems - The Importance of Ventilation

Our biggest exposure is the air we each inhale – an average of 2000 gallons a day of which 90% is from the indoor environment. During this obligatory process we draw into the depths of our lungs outdoor gases and particles mixed with indoor emissions from building materials, appliances, humans, pets as well as airborne microbes. It is no surprise that indoor air quality (IAQ) has a powerful influence on our physiology, impacting our respiratory, cardiovascular, immune, and nervous systems as well as our microbiome.

Quantifying the impact of IAQ on our physiology, both short and long-term, is a key part of establishing an IAQ health index. Based on a deep understanding of medicine and environmental sciences, Dr. Taylor will present a strategy to measure, analyze and visualize the real-time health impact of IAQ. Furthermore, this holistic approach reveals the most efficient and effective strategy for ventilation, filtration, and air-cleaning. By bridging the chasm between medicine and the built environment, IAQ can be managed to both support occupant health and reduce unnecessary energy consumption by building systems.

Webinar: Quantifying the Health Impact of IAQ

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