ASHRAE history

In 1904, 70 of the industry pioneers formed the American Society of Refrigeration Engineers, officially creating a new profession.

On July 19, 1906 in Chicago, a motion was made to form "local chapters of the society" upon application of 10 members in any state

The first chapter formed was the Issinois chapter on December 13, 1907

Documentation of 1920's Carbon Dioxide Air Conditioning System -- Orpheum Theater, Minneapolis, MN Documented by Bernard Nagengast et al.

The lineage of the Handbook begins in 1922, when the American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers (ASH&VE) published its Heating and Ventilating Guide.

Below: The Norwood Building incorporated two firsts when the 14-story structure was completed in 1929.

In 1930, Thomas Midgely of the DuPont Company developed the first fluorocarbon refrigerant and demonstrated his faith in its safety at a company press conference by inhaling a stream of the gas and blowing out a candle with it.

In 1933, he established a small heating research laboratory funded through research grants.

The Washington, DC Chapter of the American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers (ASHVE) was charted on September 24, 1935.

In 1942 the wartime fuel conservation plan developed by the Chapter was accepted by the Department of Interior for national distributing and enactment.

October of 1946 the first OREGON DIFFUSER with Don Kroeker as Editor was published becoming the second Chapter newsletter in the Society.

During the early 1950’s, several heating and ventilation industry leaders in Austin would drive to San Antonio to attend meetings of ASHVE (American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers). The Southwest Texas Chapter of ASHVE also included the south Texas and Corpus Christi areas.

1952 – (National event) ASHVE becomes American Society of Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHAE)

As early as 1953, several of the regular attendees from Austin began discussing forming a local independent Chapter of ASHVE. Early members of the group were Mr.

Following a parallel path, on July 15, 1954, a meeting was held with Al Chadburn, assistant secretary and J. W. Snyder, Sections Committee Chairman of the American Society of Refrigeration Engineers (ASRE), to learn the procedure for establishing a location Section.

The Charter was presented on March 10, 1955, to Chairman-elect Chet Bell by Leon Buehler, President of ASRE.

The Florida West Coast Chapter of ASHRAE was chartered in February 1956 to promote industry standards and best practices at the local level.

The first use of the title “Capitalaire” for the Chapter newsletter was in 1957.

Printed material (1959-85, n.d., 5 items), also a part of the General subgroup, includes the original and revised by-laws by which the Austin Chapter operates.

The name “National Capital Chapter” was first used in 1960.

By-in-large, the Chapter Regional Committee records (1962-88, n.d., 51 items) center around correspondence and reports of the Austin Chapter delegates to the annual regional meetings.

In addition, the Secretary subseries includes minutes (1963-77, 107 items) for both Board of Governors and regular Austin Chapter meetings, that provide a monthly account of the activities and interests of the Chapter over a wide range of years.

In 1967, the information in the Guide and Data Book was regrouped into a Handbook of Fundamentals, with separate Systems, Applications, and Equipment volumes.

Treasurer financial documentation, divided into various reports and account records (1968-97, n.d., 735 items) forms the bulk of the Officers subgroup.

In 1973, the Guide and Data Book was renamed the ASHRAE Handbook.

was chartered in 1974 and has functioned over 30 years as a meeting point for the HVAC industry in northeastern Indiana.

A scholarship fund was started in the early 1980’s which has grown to include a memorial fund feature.

Also noteworthy is the correspondence of Steve Jaeger as Education Committee Chair (1983-86, 29 items) that documents the interest of the Chapter in establishing Austin area student ASHRAE chapters.

In 1985-86 Elizabeth Parke served as the first female president of the Chapter.

In response to the hospitality industry's concerns about accommodating both smokers and non-smokers, the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers first published its "Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality" in 1989.

Also in 1990, the refrigeration industry petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to develop and issue uniform national recycling standards and requirements in anticipation of the large quantities of old refrigerant which would need to be removed from refurbished machinery.

The lowest number of unit shipments was in 1991 with just over 2.8 million.

In 1992, however, the company began replacing its product line with high-tech innovations, spending tens of millions of dollars in research and development, and selling off business ventures unrelated to HVAC.

The process of replacing CFCs required a shift to HCFC-22, which was the only proven substitute for CFC refrigerants in 1993.

Another study quoted by the roundtable claims that if smoking were banned in all United States restaurants, the hospitality industry would have lost $18.2 billion in 1994 or about 6 percent of sales.

In 1995, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Paul Crutzen, who identified the chemical reactions that destroy the ozone layer, and F. Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina who determined that CFCs were responsible for triggering ozone depletion.

On January 1, 1996, the production of chlorofluorocarbons was banned in the United States and other developed countries.

You can go into the AHC and ask to see the Index to Archives and Manuscripts Collections and look up the American Society or Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers and find our index number of: AR-1997.016.

HPAC estimates that 82 percent of the new homes built between January and May 1998 had central airconditioning units.

Ivanovich, Michael. " '99 Economic Forecast: The Health of the Industry." HPAC Heating/Piping/Air Conditioning, January 1999.

Once cheap and plentiful, fuel oil quickly rose in price and scientists began predicting a world-wide oil shortage and depletion of reserves by the year 2000.

The total value of HVAC industry shipments in 2001 was $25 billion.

"Study Says Demand for HVAC to Rise 5 Percent." Reeves Journal, June 2002, 60-61.

A boom in the housing industry pushed new housing starts up in 2003 to an estimated 1.6 million.

Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Chronology (updated 5/10/2006)

In 2012, as part of a rebranding, ASHRAE began doing business as “ASHRAE” vs. using its full legal name of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.

These archive indexes cover items held in the ASHRAE Library Archives at ASHRAE Headquarters. (Filesupdated 10/4/2018)

Lawrence J. Schoen argued in the ASHRAE Journal Newsletter of 24 March 2020 that, because of the WHO guidance:

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