ATLANTA – To encourage energy efficient design in a range of building types, ASHRAE and its partnering organizations are making available for free the Advanced Energy Design Guide series.

Electronic versions of the newest book in the series, Advanced Energy Design Guides for K-12 School Buildings, as well as the existing guides on small office and small retail buildings are available for free download at www.ashrae.org/freeaedg. Future guides, including one focused on warehouses to be published this spring, will be available for free electronic download as well.

“Energy efficiency is still a vast and underutilized energy resource that is essential to the long-term survival of our world,” says ASHRAE President Kent Peterson. “Buildings consume approximately 40% of the primary energy in the United States. As part of our energy efficiency market deployment strategy, we want to get this valuable building guidance into the marketplace and into the hands of owners, contractors and design teams. The technology is available today to construct substantially more efficient buildings. Free distribution of the Advanced Energy Design Guide series will help educate the marketplace on how to build energy efficient buildings that use significantly less energy than those built to the minimum code requirements.”

In addition, the K-12 guide was sent to nearly 14,000 school systems around the country to assist with the design of energy-efficient schools that create safe and comfortable environments conducive to learning.

Partnering organizations include the American Institute of Architects, the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, the U.S. Green Building Council and the U.S. Department of Energy.

“Addressing energy use in our buildings is one of the most important measures we can take in our efforts to protect the health of our environment,” said Brendan Owens, vice president of LEED Technical Development, U.S. Green Building Council. “The Advanced Energy Design Guide series are critical publications for the building industry.  Every percentage point reduction in buildings’ energy use brings us that much closer to our goal of mitigating climate change.”

The guides provide a sensible, hands-on approach to design through use of products that are practical and commercially available as “off-the-shelf” technology. They offer designers and contractors the tools needed for achieving a 30% energy savings compared to buildings that meet the minimum energy efficiency requirements of Standard 90.1-1999.

Hard copies of all of the guides are available for purchase. For more information, visit  www.ashrae.org/freeaedg.

The guides may be ordered from ASHRAE Customer Service at 800/527-4723 or 404/636-8400, fax 404/321-5478, or at www.ashrae.org/bookstore.