NFPA to Host Fire and Life Safety Conference December 13-17
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), a member and audited designator of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), will host a special Fire and Life Safety Conference on December 13-17, 2010, in Orlando, Florida.
The event will feature more than fifty intensive educational sessions on fire and life safety code topics in four educational tracks: building and life safety; codes and standards; fire suppression; and detection and alarm. The courses will be led by NFPA staff experts and committee members who work directly with the codes. Included in the discussions will be updates on the 2011 editions of NFPA 99, Standard for Health Care Facilities, and NFPA 58, Liquefied Petroleum Gas.
Post-conference seminars will be offered December 16-17 on Fire Protection Concepts and Analysis for Property Loss Prevention; Sprinkler Hydraulics; Code Requirements for Maintaining Fire and Life Safety Systems; and Explosion Prevention and Protection.
Attendees will be awarded 0.1 Continuing Education Units or 1 hour for each session. Interested participants should verify applicability with their professional board before attending. To register, or to learn more about the conference, visit www.nfpa.org/orlando2010.
In Time for Winter Chill, ASHRAE Releases Updated Thermal Comfort Standard
The most common complaint among office workers is "office too cold." The number two grumble: "office too hot!"
A newly revised standard from ANSI member and accredited standards developer the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) seeks to provide thermal comfort to the largest number of people possible.
ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55-2010, Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy, specifies environmental and personal factors for thermal environmental conditions acceptable to a majority of occupants, while accommodating design solutions for comfort and sustainability. The environmental factors addressed are temperature, thermal radiation, humidity, and air speed; the personal factors are those of activity and clothing.
To widen the acceptable range of thermal conditions, ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55 incorporates recent field study research on elevated air speeds. The standard includes a new method for determining the cooling effect of air movement above 0.15 meters per second. This allows ceiling fans, or other means of elevating airspeed, to provide comfort at higher summer temperatures than previously permissible, helping us all to breathe easier upon summer's return.
SCTE Forms Leadership Institute with Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business
The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE), an ANSI member and accredited standards developer, has joined with Dartmouth University's Tuck School of Business to launch the SCTE Leadership Institute. The program is designed to help the next generation of cable telecommunications executives strategically evaluate and capitalize on the opportunities created by the transition to Internet Protocol (IP), as well as advanced video, voice, and data services.
To be held April 26-30, 2011, the week-long immersion program leverages the resources of Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business to provide attendees with the skills necessary for achieving and maintaining technical and business leadership in an evolving market.
Applications are now being accepted for the program, which is open to qualified executives in the U.S. and abroad. Applications and a complete curriculum are available at www.scte.org; the application deadline is February 15, 2011.