The annual International Conference of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) was successfully held on 5-7, October, in Athens, Greece, in co-operation with the Hellenic Chapter of ASHRAE. This year’s Conference, entitled “Building Decarbonization 2022”, focused on the potential for emission reduction in the building sector under the appropriate planning and application of rules in construction and functioning of new or refurbished buildingsAs buildings generally contribute a large part of the energy consumption of a country, varying from 30% to 40% of the total energy demand, the building sector has emerged as one of the most crucial areas for achieving the goals of reducing greenhouse emissions as well as of clean power use and production. With more than 100 presentations and special panel discussion sessions, this year’s ASHRAE conference gathered approximately 400 participants, mostly from abroad.
The majority of the presentations were based on research by university teams, research centers and companies, case studies and applications in building complexes with both the use of techniques aiming to improve energy efficiency (e.g. reduction of thermal losses, reduction of energy consumption, achievement of thermal comfort, etc.) and the installation of solar systems for the production of hot water and electricity. The building shell and its role, depending on the type of construction and the materials used, in the energy footprint of a building was one of the main areas of deliberation at the conference. Several papers also reported on the selection and utilization of appropriate materials and construction techniques that can greatly assist in reducing the carbon footprint of a building.
IENE’s Chairman, Mr. Costis Stambolis, was an invited keynote speaker in this highly important ASHRAE conference, and contributed a presentation on “Energy Crisis: Opportunities and Challenges in SE Europe”. The full presentation is available here. IENE’s Chairman was also a panelist in the discussion forum entitled “Moving too fast or too slow towards decarbonisation”, which took place on the first day of the Conference.
