In December, I attended and presented a paper at the Thermal Performance of the Exterior Envelopes of Whole Buildings X. The conference was put on by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. There was a great showing of people from all over the world interested in how buildings perform.

I just got back from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) 2008 Winter Meeting and the AHR Expo. The technical program at the ASHRAE '08 Winter Meeting had a lot to offer over the four days of parallel technical presentations. ASHRAE has technical committees and groups devoted to advancing technology, research, standards, and other aspects of the industry.

The AHR Expo was a blast. I spent two full days wandering the Expo, talking with manufacturers about the bazillion of products out there for our industry, and I didn't even cover all of the show. Commercial-scale products certainly dominate the landscape, but there are a lot of manufacturers offering products for the residential sector. There were a lot of exciting new types of equipment, services, and software out there that we'll be seeing in houses soon, if not already. As I dig myself out of the pile of unread emails and backlog of work here in my office, I'll talk about some of these as I enter them into my file folders.

Thanks and take care,

-Eric