Women are breaking into all parts of the HVAC world!

This year marks the first year in 116 years of ASHRAE (The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers) history that a woman is president.  Lynn G Bellenger was installed as president of the society this summer.

As a woman in a mostly male dominated industry I was obviously excited to hear this.  I was even more excited to hear her ideas of making sure that HVAC industrial experts be inserted in the architect/engineer part of building.  She said this was especially important if the heating and cooling industry is to continue it's quest of making a sustainable world, saying, "It is going to require a real cultural shift in our industry to transform the design process, and it's a shift that has to occur if we are going to reach our goal of net-zero-energy buildings."

I found her presidential address (at http://www.ashrae.org) both eloquent and practical.  She said, "Our challenge is to approach every project with innovation, not repetition, and to challenge ourselves to find the elegant solutions that will minimize energy use and provide exceptional indoor environmental quality. People will judge us on our performance, not our promises."

Who of us in this industry has not been frustrated with HVAC being such an after thought to the overall building plan?  When it is clearly one of the most important parts of a comfortable building.  Add with that the modern desire to stop polluting our earth and we are clearly in a time of change.

I'm so proud to be part of David White Services, bringing well designed, efficient heating and cooling (both traditional and geo-thermal) to the Athens and Lancaster markets.  And glad to have so many women in our organization as well.  Women are so good at practical application that it just makes sense to have us in an industry that deeply effects the daily comfort of both us our families.