consumer center

Consumer Center

ASHRAE is the world’s foremost technical society in the fields of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC&R). The Society helps ensure energy efficient buildings, keep indoor environments comfortable and productive, deliver healthy food to consumers and preserve the outdoor environment.

ASHRAE’s technical foundation is built by some 56,000 volunteer members in more than 133 countries. ASHRAE membership includes consulting engineers, contractors, manufacturers, manufacturing representatives/sales, and architects.

Healthier Homes During Epidemics

Preparing your home in advance can help you, your family, and other household members stay physically and mentally healthy during an outbreak. This white paper describes strategies for protecting household members from infection and for isolating those who develop the infectious disease or have a high risk of severe outcomes if they become infected. This paper also describes the supplies you might need, the information you should gather about your home and its heating and cooling systems, and other actions you can take before or during an outbreak to minimize your household’s risk of illness.

How Does My Air Conditioner Work:
Answers to Commonly Asked Questions about Heating and Cooling

Top 10 Things Consumers Should Know About Their HVAC Systems
Choosing the Right Size System for Your Home

Breathing Easier: Improving Indoor Air Quality in Your Home

Are concerns about indoor air quality making it difficult for you to breathe easy in your own home? Acknowledging reports that air quality inside homes can be worse than outside, engineers have identified ways to move air in and out of homes to minimize the factors that lead to indoor air quality problems. The key is to design HVAC and other systems to work together to effectively ventilate homes and minimize sources of indoor pollution. Guidance from ASHRAE ensures good indoor air quality for your home, allowing you to “breathe easier.”

Top 10 Ways Homeowners Can Ensure Good Indoor Air Quality

ASHRAE Resources to Improve Energy Efficiency in Your Home

With energy bills skyrocketing in recent years, the need to save energy has become more important than ever.  Saving energy is beneficial on both an individual and a global scale. First, and most immediately, saving energy translates into money savings for homeowners. In addition, saving energy is beneficial on a global scale, since we face dwindling energy reserves.

Heating and cooling, along with ventilation, refrigeration and water heating, are responsible for about 75 percent of residential energy use.  A few simple steps can help you cut energy use and save on heating or cooling costs.

Keeping Cool and Saving Money – Energy Tips for the Cooling Season
Putting the Freeze on Heating Costs – Energy Tips for the Heating Season

Refrigeration Recipes

More than 100 recipes for cocktails, salads, breads, sauces and dressings can be found in Cook with Cold: Old Tyme Refrigerator Recipes.

A collection of recipes from the 1920s-1940s, the book is published by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) in recognition of the centennial of a predecessor society, the American Society of Refrigerating Engineers.

The recipes and images are reprinted from cookbooks published by Kelvinator, Frigidaire, Servel, Copeland, General Electric, Electrolux, Westinghouse, Majestic, Grunow, Crosley, Gibson and Norge.  Learn more