Podcasts: Nov. 24, 2014

A: I’m the luckiest guy. I’ve had the good fortune of spending the 35 or so years of my professional career focused on the performance of buildings and building products, in particular energy performance and topics we refer to today as green building, sustainability, and durability. I’ve had a wonderful career working in that industry, doing research to building forensic evaluations to writing books. My company is a small building science consulting firm headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina. We serve a variety of clients, from product manufacturers to people interested in codes and standards development, working on things like building commissioning, costs, and building material performance.

Q: You are the vice chair of ASHRAE’s residential ad hoc committee. What are you guys working on?

A: A year or so ago, then [ASHRAE] president Bill Bahnfleth and others asked a question. We have this mission at ASHRAE to be leaders of building performance and to help shape and understand building heating, cooling, and refrigeration. When we do the math, we’re really quick to point out that buildings in the U.S. are the single largest energy user nationwide, consuming more than 40 percent of energy use. When we looked at ASHRAE, most of our focus was on commercial buildings, which are responsible for about half of that 40 percent. What that meant was, the other half of the building energy consumption sector, we weren’t really directly involved in. We’re very indirectly involved in [homes], as everyone relies on ASHRAE tools in the residential sector. … Even though we’ve been leaders in understanding building performance, we hadn’t necessarily figured out our role in bringing ASHRAE home, into the residential market. … This important sector of our lives — people’s homes — what role does ASHRAE play in it? We assembled a committee to help ASHRAE understand the residential marketplace.

Chris Mathis
President, Mathis Consulting Co., Asheville, North Carolina
www.mathisconsulting.com

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Publication date: 11/24/2014