|
| Back to Contents Page |
Home Energy Index |
About Home Energy |
| Home Energy Home Page | Back Issues of Home Energy |
Home Energy Magazine Online July/August 1994
TRENDS
Affordable Comfort Does it Again
Now in its eighth year, the Affordable Comfort conference again drew
record attendance--with more than 1,000 participants including 184 presenters
meeting in Philadelphia this March. With 84 workshops, 81 tutorials, and two
advanced evening sessions, the five-and-a-half-day conference continues to be a
true mega-training event for energy conservation professionals.
While Affordable Comfort has grown in size, the sessions have maintained their
intimacy, with the 6-to-1 ratio of participants to presenters providing many
opportunities for questions and quality discussion.
New to the conference were tracks devoted to energy efficiency in multifamily
dwellings and advanced technical sessions held during the evenings, with
presentations from building scientists Mark Modera of California's Lawrence
Berkeley Laboratory, and Larry Palmiter of Seattle-based Ecotope.
The notion that energy-efficiency programs should transform the marketplace for
goods and services was a recurring theme at this year's conference, with a
track devoted entirely to the subject. For attendees, there was a sense that
Affordable Comfort is not just a conference, but a movement--part of something
larger that is emerging.
Market transformation was the theme of keynote speeches by Steven Cowell,
president of Conservation Services Group and of Affordable Comfort
Incorporated, and by Dennis Livingston, executive director of the Baltimore
Jobs in Energy Project.
Reflecting an industry trend, health and safety topics such as combustion
safety again dominated the conference agenda. There was also an increased
emphasis on how weatherization affects a building as a system with less
emphasis on "how to find the holes." A draft policy statement issued by
Affordable Comfort Incorporated reflected a growing concern about indoor air
quality.
"A large number of practitioners, building scientists and program planners
believe that the attention paid to indoor air quality and combustion safety has
been inadequate," reads the draft statement. "Energy efficiency, air tightness
and weatherization should not be viewed as contradictory to occupant health and
safety. The economic benefits of improved health and safety should be added to
the economic benefits of energy efficiency when determining the
cost-effectiveness of measures or assessments."
Another highlight was a speech by Carol Tombari of the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory, who discussed the Clinton Administration's recent efforts to
deal with global climate change. Energy-efficient buildings can of course play
a significant role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions (see "Carrots and
Sticks From Washington").
Four sessions receiving the highest ratings on conference evaluation forms
were: "Better Results from Technical Staff Development," a workshop about
integrating technology and client education to achieve optimum energy savings;
"Treating the Comfort System, A Case Study in Comprehensiveness," centering
around Atlantic Electric's Energy Smart Service, a program in New Jersey
targeting heat-pump customers with high utility bills; and "Duct Repair" and
"Forced Air and Indoor Air Quality," both with John J. Tooley, Jr. of Natural
Florida Retrofit.
Three of the most heavily attended sessions were "Dense-Pack Cellulose,"
"User-Friendly Pressure Diagnostics," and "How Tight is Right?" Audio tapes of
conference sessions are available for $8 each from Gail Ettinger, Affordable
Comfort Incorporated, P.O. Box 57174, Philadelphia, PA 19111.
Tel:(215)563-3761, Fax:(215)563-3948. The 1995 Affordable Comfort conference
will be held at the Hilton in downtown Pittsburgh and the 1996 conference is to
be held in Chicago.
Affordable Comfort has already issued its call for presenters for the 1995
conference (the deadline for applications is August 1).
West Coast Conference Coming!
An Affordable Comfort Regional Conference is scheduled for October 13-15
at Pacific Gas and Electric Company's Learning Center in San Ramon, California,
near San Francisco. The conference will be modeled on Affordable Comfort, with
40-50 sessions with six or seven simultaneous tracks plus hands-on tutorials.
The conference will blend some of the highlights of the March conference with
regionally-specific topics like water conservation and cooling.
-- Cyril Penn
| Back to Contents Page |
Home Energy Index |
About Home Energy |
| Home Energy Home Page | Back Issues of Home Energy |
Home Energy can be reached at: contact@homeenergy.org
Home Energy magazine -- Please read our Copyright Notice
| 
