"The Pocket Guide is a useful tool for people who are away from the office and cannot carry numerous pages from the ASHRAE Handbook or look at a CD on a computer," Fred Kohloss, a consulting engineer who revised the book, said. "With the guide, people can do quick analysis of field problems."

The guide provides a general source of hvac/r information from ASHRAE Handbook charts, tables, graphs and equations, including the 2001 ASHRAE Handbook Fundamentals. New information is included on absorption refrigerants, ground source heat pumps, sorbents and desiccants, and updated refrigeration safety standard information.

In addition, the guide covers air handling and psychrometrics, air contaminants and control, water and steam, water heating and plumbing piping, mechanical and absorption refrigeration systems, refrigerants, refrigeration safety and refrigeration load, air-conditioning load data, ventilation, electrical, engines and turbines, fuels and combustion, owning and operating, sound and vibration, evaporative cooling, automatic controls, occupant comfort and geothermal systems.

The 2001 ASHRAE Pocket Guide is published in two editions. One contains inch-pound (I-P) units of measurement, and the other contains the International System of Units (SI).