The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE; pronounced 'ash'-'ray') is an international technical society for all individuals and organizations interested in heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC&R). The Society, organized into Regions, Chapters, and Student Branches, allows exchange of HVAC&R knowledge and experiences for the benefit of the field's practitioners and the public. ASHRAE provides many opportunities to participate in the development of new knowledge via, for example the AHR Expo, is held in conjunction with each Winter Meeting.
The ASHRAE Handbook is a four-volume resource for HVAC&R technology and is available in both print and electronic versions. The volumes are Fundamentals, HVAC Applications, HVAC Systems and Equipment, and Refrigeration. One of the four volumes is updated each year.
ASHRAE was founded in 1894 at a meeting of like-minded engineers in New York City. Until 1954 it was known as the American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers (ASHVE); in that year it changed its name to the American Society of Heating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHAE). Its current name and organization came from the 1959 merger of ASHAE and the American Society of Refrigerating Engineers (ASRE). The result, ASHRAE, despite having 'American' in its name, is an influential international organization. Its 55,000 members worldwide are dedicated to advancing the arts and sciences of HVAC&R. ASHRAE's headquarters is in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
As an initiative to promote core disciplines of engineering, Kshitij 2009 (IIT Kharagpur) has joined hands with ASHRAE(American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers) to introduce a new event called "Kryotech"- The ASHRAE India Student Design Competition (Indian Prototype of the global Student Design Competition). The event will ask participants to design an HVAC system for an industry, details of which would be available on the website. With the confluence of Asia's Largest Techno Management Fest with the World's leading association in the field of thermodynamics, the quality of participation in this event is certainly going to be astounding.
