Representing, and Safeguarding the Air Systems Industry
AMCA International is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting, representing, and safeguarding the air systems industry. We achieve this through advocacy efforts aimed at ensuring that buildings are efficient, healthy, and safe for occupants. Our work involves participating in the development and refinement of codes, standards, and regulations, as well as providing education and information to decision-makers and practitioners. Our advocacy initiatives are focused on three key areas: energy and sustainability, occupant and building protection, and indoor air quality.
Michael Ivanovich, Senior Director, Global Affairs Phone: +1 (847) 704-6340 Email: [email protected]
AMCA International currently is active in the following industry initiatives or issues:
An energy-efficient system not only performs well, but also provides indoor comfort, good air quality, and acoustics with lower carbon emissions and a longer service life.
AMCA collaborates with government agencies, organizations, and other stakeholders to achieve practical and cost-effective voluntary and regulatory energy-efficiency measures.
We encourage and support the industry professionals and manufacturers that update their products and practices in compliance with the latest standards, technologies, and tools.
Learn more about our efforts.
United States
AMCA is actively involved in developing energy codes and standards, utility rebate programs, and government regulations.
We have developed a new fan-efficiency metric, fan energy index (FEI) in response to the 2013 U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) rulemaking indicating a preference for a metric based on electrical power consumption, which differed from the fan efficiency grade (FEG) metric. We have indicated FEI into:
However, if federal regulations become too restrictive, it can limit the flexibility of these model codes and standards to address the specific needs of local jurisdictions. As a result, utility rebate programs for commercial and industrial fans may not be able to achieve the reasonable benchmarks necessary to drive returns on investment for higher-efficiency products. It's essential to balance these aspects to ensure effective energy conservation.
Learn more
AMCA has a growing library of educational and training resources for manufacturers, consulting engineers, contractors, commissioning providers, building owners and code officials.
Europe
The European Commission considers eco-design as the most efficient method to enhance the energy efficiency of energy-related products, decrease greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to the commission's goal of decarbonizing by 2050. With the integration of new technologies and requirements, the HVAC sector will play a vital role in achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement, with AMCA assisting in the creation of necessary legislative measures.
Middle East
In the last twenty years, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has become a major global center for tourism, investment, and logistics. This has led to an increase in interest for sustainable development in the region. To reduce carbon emissions by approximately 30 percent and save AED 10 billion (USD 2.72 billion) by 2030, the UAE Cabinet has adopted sustainable-building standards. The building sector will play a vital role in achieving these sustainability goals, and AMCA is advocating for the air systems industry to contribute towards these efforts.
Asia
Throughout Asia, our members are certifying fans for FEG ratings and tracking energy-efficiency regulations.
Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation
In the past ten years, the variable-air-volume (VAV) system has undergone significant innovation and progress. By using the latest components and following best practices, a new generation of VAV systems has been developed, known as the high-performance air system (HPAS).
Typically, an HPAS consists of a chiller, an air handler, and terminal units or a chiller and fan coils. It offers numerous benefits, such as individual temperature zoning and high-efficiency filtration of both outside air and recirculated air. This system significantly improves energy efficiency by utilizing aggressive supply-air-temperature and chilled-water-temperature reset, demand-control ventilation, integrated economizing with heat recovery, separation of return-air and outside-air treatment in humid climates, exhaust energy recovery where appropriate, and heat-pump-chiller building-wide heat recovery. Additionally, it provides optional 100-percent electric operation.
Air Quality is Critical
Air systems play a critical role in ventilation and indoor air quality.
AMCA International believes that HPAS are the most cost-effective way of providing comfortable and well-ventilated commercial spaces. We advise building professionals to:
Insist that the central air system is modeled according to the latest best practices, rather than outdated "baseline" minimum-performance VAV systems, when compared to alternatives.
Recognize the benefits of designing a HPAS that has the lowest cost of ownership.
Resist code proposals that limit technology choices and declare technology winners.
For more information, or to make comments about this web page, contact Michael Ivanovich, Director of Industry Relations, AMCA International, at [email protected].
Occupant and Building Protection
Active safety measures are designed to suppress or extinguish fire, while passive safety measures prevent the spread of fire and smoke, which is the leading cause of death in case of a fire. Unfortunately, in many cases, passive forms of fire protection are overlooked in favor of active ones, primarily due to cost-saving measures, rather than performance.
AMCA recommends multiple safeguards for the protection of people and property in the event that one fails, other measures will still be in place to prevent the spread of fire and smoke.
Fire-protection requirements vary according to building characteristics. Know your facility, including its use and occupancy, height and area limitations, and materials of construction.
Understand how fire-protection systems interface with other major building systems and each other.
Codes and Standards
AMCA is active in the development and refinement of codes and standards affecting occupant and building protection, including:
Ceiling fans are popular for providing air mixing, destratification, and
cooling effects in residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural
settings.
The U.S. Department of Energy defines large-diameter ceiling fans (LDCF) as
having a blade span greater than 7 feet (2.1 meters). It's important to note
that not all LDCF are high-velocity, low-speed (HVLS) fans.
The AMCA Certified Ratings Program (CRP) was instituted to provide
assurance that manufacturers’ product ratings are accurate and enable
comparisons of like products across manufacturers. The AMCA CRP
currently covers more than 4,000 product lines worldwide.
Search for AMCA Certified Product Lines
and type-large diameter ceiling fan. Click on any of the resulting
manufacturers to obtain links to catalogs of certified LDCF models.
Industry Team
Michael Ivanovich
Senior Director, Global Relations
AMCA International
Eddie Boyd
President and CEO
MacroAir Technologies
Marc Brandt
Director, Domestic Industrial Business
Hunter Industrial
Thomas Catania, Esq.
Board Member
Institute for Energy Innovation
Aaron Gunzner
Senior manager, advocacy
AMCA International
Mark Stevens
Executive director
AMCA International
Christian Taber
Principal engineer, codes, and standards
Big Ass Fans
Mike Wolf
Director, regulatory business development
Greenheck Fan Corp.
AMCA insite Webinar- U.S. Codes, Standards, & Regulations for Large Diameter Ceiling Fans.
The Impact of LDCF on COVID-19 Exposure in Warehouses
AMCA International, in collaboration with Concordia University and a
team of engineers and scientists, have published the results of a
year-long study that investigates the impact of LDCF on COVID-19
exposures in warehouses in the United States.
The findings are applicable to large open indoor spaces with low
occupancy, in addition to warehouses. They are based on over 220
parametric computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. These
simulations varied worker and packing-line locations, fan speed (ranging
from 20% to 100%), and with and without racking. The fans used in the
project are certified by AMCA International for air performance.
AMCA wishes to thank Liangzhu (Leon) Wang, PhD, P.Eng., and his team at Concordia University for
the modeling and the science and industry teams for their contributions
to the study design and the review of the results and guidance.
To promote integrity in the design and execution of the research and
ensure the conclusions drawn from the study are valid and useful, AMCA
International assembled industry and science teams. Consisting of
representatives of AMCA International member companies and members of
the AMCA International staff, the industry team provided expertise in
the application and performance of products, while the science team,
made up of authorities on infectious diseases, indoor-air quality, fans,
and computer modeling, advised on the project setup and reviewed the
intermediate and final results. The table below identifies the rosters
of the science and industry teams.
AMCA Member Companies
Thank you to the following AMCA member companies for co-funding this study: