bers worldwide are individuals who share ideas, identify needs, sup-port research, and write the industry’s standards for testing and
practice. The result is that engineers are better able to keep indoor environments safe and productive while protecting and preserving
the outdoors for generations to come.
One of the ways that ASHRAE supports its members’ and indus-try’s need for information is through ASHRAE Research. Thou-sands of individuals and companies support ASHRAE Research annually, enabling ASHRAE to report new data about material properties and building physics and to promote the application ofinnovative technologies.
Chapters in the ASHRAE Handbook are updated through the experience of members of ASHRAE Technical Committees and
through results of ASHRAE Research reported at ASHRAE confer- ences and published in ASHRAE special publications, ASHRAE
Transactions, and ASHRAE’s journal of archival research, Science and Technology for the Built Environment.
For information about ASHRAE Research or to become a mem-ber, contact ASHRAE, 180 Technology Parkway, Peachtree Cor-
ners, GA 30092; telephone: 404-636-8400; www.ashrae.org.
Preface
The 2021 ASHRAE Handbook—Fundamentals covers basic principles and data used in the HVAC&R industry. The ASHRAE
Technical Committees that prepare these chapters provide new information, clarify existing content, delete obsolete materials, and
reorganize chapters to make the Handbook more understandable and easier to use.
Eligible ASHRAE members can download PDFs of this volume, in either I-P or SI units and either as a complete volume or by indi-
vidual chapter, by logging into technologyportal.ashrae.org. This edition includes a new chapter on global climate change. Individual Handbook chapters have long addressed sustainability,
global warming potential, greenhouse gases, recycling, and recla-mation as they apply to those chapters’ specific topics, but
ASHRAE is pleased to present an entirely new chapter dedicated entirely to designing and operating in a changing world environ- ment.
In addition to the new chapter, this volume’s content has been extensively updated since the 2017 edition.Chapter 14, Climatic
Design Information, for instance, has expanded its coverage and added data from 1119 new weather stations around the world, for a
total of 9237 stations.
This volume is published, as a bound print volume and in elec- tronic format as PDF and online, in two editions: one using inch-
pound (I-P) units of measurement, the other using the International System of Units (SI).
Corrections to the 2018, 2019, and 2020 Handbook volumes can be found on the ASHRAE website at www.ashrae.org and in the
Additions and Corrections section of this volume. Corrections for this volume will be listed in subsequent volumes and on the
ASHRAE website.
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