In case you missed it right before the holiday weekend, ASHRAE is bringing ventilation design to an attractive, Cupertino-based device near you. Check this out from their release:

"Calculating ventilation rates just became a little easier with a new iPhone application designed specifically for an interactive calculation spreadsheet related to ASHRAE’s ventilation standard.

"Developed for Apple’s iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, the ASHRAE Standard 62.1 app allows for convenient calculations while in the field, performing the outdoor air calculations found in the Ventilation Rate Procedure and the interactive 62MZCalc spreadsheets contained in the ASHRAE User’s Manual for Standard 62.1, Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality.

"The ASHRAE 62.1 app can also be used to determine 62.1 compliance of simple ventilation systems (single zone, 100 percent outdoor-air and changeover-bypass VAV) as well as more complex ventilation systems (single-path, multiple zone recirculating) and can operate in both IP and metric units. Other benefits include the ability to store and access multiple projects within the app and also to email inputs and results for use in a spreadsheet at a later time.

"The ASHRAE 62.1 app can be purchased through Apple’s online iPhone App Store for $19.99. The app applies to the calculations and spreadsheet in the 2007 standard and User’s Manual. When the documents are updated to correspond with new editions of Standard 62.1, purchasers will receive a free upgrade.

"This app was developed for ASHRAE by Carmel Software Corp., a firm specializing in the development of engineering and scientific mobile and tablet software applications."

I have to say, on paper -- or rather, on pixel -- that looks like a good idea, well executed (especially with regard to the free upgrades later on). Not to mention it implicitly encourages designers to visit the job site by potentially making the trip a more efficient use of their time.

So, who among you engineers out there is going to give it a spin and give us some feedback?