NP «AVOK» in the world standardization system.

NP “AVOK” in the world standardization system

One of the main fundamental provisions of the law “On Technical Regulation”, which was approved by the President of the Russian Federation on December 27, 2002, is that federal executive bodies have the right to approve technical standards of only voluntary application, and not mandatory ones, since July 1, 2003.

In accordance with the law, mandatory technical standards in all industries can be established only by technical regulations adopted by the State Duma in the form of federal laws or international treaties,
and in urgent cases – by decrees of the President of Russia.

The development of technical regulations under the new law can be carried out by any individual or legal entity on the basis of the program for the development of technical regulations approved by the Government of the Russian Federation.

In addition to national standards, standards of organizations (for example, AVOK standards) can also be developed.

Organization standards may be approved by commercial, public, scientific, “self-regulatory” organizations and associations of legal entities in the manner established by them. Almost the only limitation is that organizational standards must not contradict technical regulations.

One of the main objectives of the law is to harmonize Russian regulatory documents with all international systems of technical standards and the legislation of the most advanced countries in this regard.

The world system of technical regulation and standardization is based on ISO standards, and the European system is based on ISO and CEN standards.

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is a non-governmental organization — an association,
whose members are national standards organizations from 148 countries. It is the world's largest developer of standards.

ISO is managed by the Central Secretariat, located in Geneva (Switzerland).

International standardization began in the field of electrical engineering: in 1906, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) was founded.

In 1926, the International Federation of National Standardization Associations (ISA) was established, focusing mainly on standardization in the field of heavy engineering.

Finally, in 1946, delegates from 25 countries decided to create an organization designed to facilitate international coordination and unification of industrial standards – ISO. The main goal of ISO is to facilitate the movement of goods and services to different markets by eliminating technical barriers.

The main ISO document is the International Standard. The International Standard embodies the basic principles of ISO — universal openness and «transparency», consistency and technical validity.

These principles are guaranteed by the development of the standard in a special ISO subdivision — the Technical Committee (ISO/TC), which includes representatives of all interested parties.

In addition to standards, technical committees develop lower-level documents that do not have the status of international standards, such as technical specifications (ISO Technical Specification, ISO/TS) and technical reports (ISO Technical Report, ISO/TR). There are more than two hundred technical committees.

NP “AVOK” represents Russia in Technical Committee TC 205 Building Environment Design, which works in the field of standardization to ensure the quality of indoor microclimate, energy conservation and efficient use of energy.

One of the results of the work of the NP “ABOK” in the committee TC 205 was the publication of a trilingual English-German-Russian terminological dictionary “Building Automation and Control Systems”, which is part of the series of international
standards EN ISO 16484 Building Automation and Control Systems – BACS.
ISO standards are voluntary in nature but can become generally accepted standards, as happened with the ISO 9 000 and 9 001 standards.

The next level of the world standardization system is the standards of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN).

This organization was created in 1961 by the national standardization organizations of the countries that are members of the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).

The purpose of this organization is to develop documents (European standards) that promote free trade, as well as ensuring the safety and health of people, protecting the environment, ensuring the interoperability of various computer networks, protocols, etc.

Unlike ISO standards, European standards are mandatory: a European standard must be adopted as a national standard.

ISO and CEN have harmonized their standardization activities through the 1991 Vienna Agreement on Technical Cooperation between ISO and CEN, which establishes procedures for the mutual recognition of standards developed by either organization.

When ISO and CEN agree to develop standards in a specific technical field, the ISO and CEN procedures for approving these standards are initiated in parallel. If, as a result of such a procedure, a standard is approved at ISO level, it is published in the ISO standards association as an international standard.

If a standard has also been approved in a parallel evaluation procedure in CEN, all countries that are members of CEN are obliged to include this standard in their national standards as a European standard with the prefix EN ISO.

The governing body of CEN is the General Assembly. CEN has two commissions — an administrative board and a technical board. The technical board includes technical committees, which draft European standards. CEN is located in Brussels (Belgium).

CEN has 28 national members representing their countries and having the right to vote on the adoption of European standards.

National organizations of European EU or EFTA member countries that are not national members of CEN may participate in the work of CEN as Affiliates and subsequently become full national members. The main condition for this is the adoption of European standards as national ones. In addition, CEN has the concept of CEN partners – “Partner Standardization Bodies” (PSB) – national standardization organizations of countries that are members of ISO, but are not members of CEN for political reasons or due to their geographical location.

Partners can participate in the work of CEN technical committees and attend the General Assembly. To acquire the status of PSB, national standardization organizations must fulfill a number of conditions, the most important of which is the inclusion in national standards of European standards developed by the CEN Technical Committee in whose work the national organization participates.

CEN's current partners are Russia, Ukraine, Serbia and Montenegro, as well as Egypt and Tunisia.

In addition to national members, CEN has 8 associate members representing individual industries, consumers, environmentalists, trade unions, and small businesses. Two consultants (counselor) also participate in CEN's work — the European Commission and the EFTA Secretariat.

The next level of the global standardization system is national regulatory documents. In our country, these included GOSTs, Building Norms and Rules (SNiP), Codes of Practice for Design and Construction (SP), Sanitary Rules and Norms (SanPiN).

Before the introduction of the federal law «On Technical Regulation», these documents had the status of mandatory application.

The territorial building codes — TSN belong to the level of regional standards.
These include territorial norms of the subjects of the Russian Federation. Such normative documents reflect the specifics of the regions, but at the same time do not contradict the requirements of national (federal) normative documents.

At the next hierarchical level of the world standardization system are normative documents that are developed by public organizations that are professional associations of specialists, such as the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers, ASHRAE, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute, AR), (Verein Deutsche Ingenieure, VDI, NP “ABOK”, AICARR (Associazione Italiana Condizionamento dell’Aria, Riscaldamento, Refrigerazione) and others.

A distinctive feature of the standards of this level is their status of voluntary application.
However, individual standards of public organizations are often adopted as national or regional normative documents, or national or regional normative documents are developed on the basis of the standards of public organizations.

Currently, ASHRAE is working on more than 170 different standards and guidelines, covering a wide range of issues. ASHRAE standards are divided into design standards (12 standards); testing standards (more than 90); standards for setting parameters and classification (4); standards for reporting, calculating and determining efficiency (6); measurement standards (12); standards for definition and specification, formation of terminology and structuring of data (4); guidelines — a total of 25.

AVOK standards, which belong to the same hierarchical level of regulatory documents, are the name of technical materials in the field of heating, ventilation, air conditioning, heat and cold supply, automation, thermal protection, microclimate of buildings and structures and their elements, presented in the form of regulatory documents.

The name “standards” is given to them based on the international nature of the content of this term for technical materials presented in the form of regulatory documents, which corresponds to the world practice of developing regulatory documents by professional organizations of a similar profile.

NP “AVOK”, as a professional association of specialists, the main task of which is to promote the progress of the industry, develops AVOK standards with the aim of:

– improving the level of design, construction and operation with a focus on the use of modern technologies in heating and ventilation equipment;
– improving the quality of the microclimate of buildings;
– increasing the energy efficiency of buildings;
– harmonizing the domestic regulatory framework with progressive international standards.

The system for preparing each AVOK standard includes two stages:

1. Putting into use a “temporary” standard with a validity period of 1 year. During this period, its testing, collection of comments and suggestions and preparation of a standard with a validity period of 4 years.
2. Introduction of the standard for a period of 4 years, its further improvement and re-publication.

NP “AVOK” strives to ensure support for the AVOK standards from the Russian State Construction Committee, the Moscow Committee for Architecture, the Moscow State Expertise, and other regional organizations interested in using these documents.

After a year of testing, if the conclusion on the possibility of their use is positive, the AVOK standards are submitted to the relevant organizations for approval and granting them regional or federal (national) status.

NP «AVOK» actively participates in the development of international regulatory and methodological documents and pursues a policy of adapting these documents to Russian conditions, if this is economically and practically feasible.

Both in the past and especially recently, we have had to and continue to hear complaints from organizations about difficulties in their work related to the absence or weakness of existing legislation.

The creation of regulatory documents and rules is one of the most important areas of activity of NP «AVOK», the goal of which is to help specialists overcome these difficulties.

NP «AVOK» asks all interested organizations to come forward with proposals for regulatory documents that need to be developed in the next year or two.

NP “AVOK” will create the necessary creative conditions for these tasks to be solved effectively and at a high professional level.