ASHRAE Wraps Winter Conference, AHR Expo

The 2024 ASHRAE Winter Conference, held Jan. 20-24 in Chicago, Illinois, saw a robust gathering of industry professionals with nearly 3,800 people registered to attend. The conference included 458 committee meetings, 125 technical sessions and numerous engaging social events and activities.

The AHR Expo, spanning 527,000 net square feet of exhibit space at McCormick Place, played host to more than 1,860 exhibitors, including 344 international exhibitors, unveiling cutting-edge HVAC&R technologies, products and services. An estimated 50,000 people attended the expo over the course of three days.

The top three most attended Winter Conference sessions were:

• Seminar 13: Thermal Energy Storage: A Critical Strategy for Decarbonization
• Seminar 19: LIVESTREAM: Beneficial Electrification
• Seminar 8: The Logical Way to Tap Into Decarbonization: Hydronic District Energy Systems

At the conference, 2023-24 ASHRAE President Ginger Scoggins shared updates pertaining to the society’s current theme, “Challenge Accepted: Tackling the Climate Crisis” during her State of the Society address.

Among many topics, Scoggins spoke on the expanding interest in decarbonization efforts, as well as support from the U.S. federal government for ASHRAE’s recently published updated energy efficiency standard for existing buildings, Standard 100.

Scoggin’s full State of the Society address manuscript and presentation can be found at ashrae.org/president.

President Scoggins announced the winners of the 2023 Decarbonization Challenge, a grant program to assist ASHRAE chapters in implementing decarbonization projects in their communities. An impressive 43 applications were submitted and nine chapters will receive grants ranging from $2,000 to $10,000 for a total of $65,850, with additional matching funds from partnering organizations of the selected projects. The projected carbon savings will be on the order of 2.3 million kilograms of CO2 over the lifecycles of the selected projects based on submitted calculations.

Decarbonization Challenge winners and photos can be found at ashrae.org/DecarbChallengeFund.

Further emphasizing the society’s commitment to solving the technical challenges of building decarbonization, the board of directors approved the transition of the ASHRAE Task Force for Building Decarbonization from an ad hoc committee to the permanent Center of Excellence for Building Decarbonization.

The accomplishments of ASHRAE members took center stage at an honors and awards program. ASHRAE’s Executive Vice President and Secretary Jeff Littleton also provided updates on the society’s ongoing initiatives, highlighting its 130 years of service to the built environment.

All registered attendees, both in-person and virtual, will have access to the virtual conference platform during the conference and 12 months post-conference.

The 2024 ASHRAE Annual Conference will take place June 22-26 in Indianapolis, Indiana. The 2025 Winter Conference will take place Feb. 8-12, 2025 and the AHR Expo, Feb. 10-12, 2025 in Orlando, Florida.