Standards in acoustics of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)

Abstract

This paper presents the extent of ASHRAE’s involvement in sound and noise standards. ASHRAE has only a limited number of formal standards in acoustics but its two volumes of the four-volume set of handbooks contain many items that have become de facto standards. The ‘‘Fundamentals Handbook’’ and the ‘‘Applications Handbook’’ provide tables that show the power loss due to end reflection, attenuation of lined ducts, room criteria approaches and metrics, and other material properties that are used even though, and in spite of the fact that, they never were evaluated as a standard by Canvass or other means. I will summarize the topics in the ASHRAE publications and discuss the limitations and current controversial topics.