ARLINGTON, Va. — AHRI has announced the three recipients of its 2025 Standards Achievement Award: Richard Lord, ASHRAE Fellow and senior fellow, Carrier; Paul Sohler, senior engineering manager, Burnham Holdings Engineering Co.; and Rusty Tharp, principal at Aozora Consulting and former vice president of regulatory affairs and environmental research, Daikin.
The award recognizes exceptional volunteer service and technical guidance in developing HVACR industry standards. The honorees were recognized during a recent presentation at the 2025 ASHRAE conference in Phoenix, Arizona.
Lord was a key participant with the Appliance Standards and Rulemaking Federal Advisory Committee (ASRAC) in the negotiations on AHRI Standard 340/360, Performance Rating of Commercial and Industrial Unitary Air Conditioning and Heat Pump Equipment. His analysis of commercial building loads and bin hours led to the development of the Integrated Ventilation, Economizer, and Cooling Efficiency (IVEC) and Integrated Ventilation, Heating Efficiency (IVHE) metrics and the creation of AHRI Standard 1340, Performance Rating of Commercial and Industrial Unitary Air Conditioning and Heat Pump Equipment, and AHRI Standard 1365, Performance Rating of Commercial and Industrial Unitary Air Conditioning and Heat Pump Condensing Units. He also serves on multiple Standards Technical Committees (STCs).
Sohler has chaired the Hydronic Systems STC since its inception in 2021, leading key initiatives to advance boiler testing and rating procedures. He played a pivotal role in the initial publication of AHRI Standard 1500, Performance Rating of Commercial Space Heating Boilers, and ASHRAE/AHRI Standard 155, Method of Testing for Rating Commercial Space Heating Boiler Systems. He is also leading the development of the new AHRI Standard 1560, Method for Calculation of Commercial Boiler Standard Thermal Efficiency, and helped resolve an assertion of duplication by The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) regarding AHRI Standard 1560 and ASME PTC 4.
Tharp served on the Standards Committee for more than a decade. He was vice chairman from 2014-2016 and chairman from 2017-2021. As the former chairman of the Unitary Small Equipment STC, he led major revisions to AHRI Standard 210/240, Performance Rating of Unitary Air Conditioning and Air-Source Heat Pump Equipment, including the introduction of Controls Verification Procedure (CVP), Peak Load Coefficient of Performance (COPPeak), and Dual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (DFUE) metrics. He also led the initial publication of AHRI Standard 1600, Performance Rating of Unitary Air Conditioning and Air-Source Heat Pump Equipment, which introduced the Seasonal Cooling and Off-mode Rated Efficiency (SHORE) and Seasonal Heating and Off-mode Rated Efficiency (SCORE) metrics. He has also served on multiple STCs.
“The contributions of these individuals have had a profound and lasting impact on our association and industry,” said Bill Tritsis, AHRI senior vice president of certification and standards. “We are truly grateful for their dedication to standards development, which helps AHRI to ensure consistency in manufacturer specifications, increase consumer confidence, and provide a means for manufacturers, third-party laboratories, regulators, and certification bodies to assess products objectively and consistently.”