About ACI

Mission
To advance the performance of residential buildings

Vision
Every family has a home that is energy efficient, durable, comfortable, healthy, and safe, and every community has access to skilled home performance services and professionals

Background
ACI (Affordable Comfort, Inc.) is a national nonprofit organization that has become the go-to resource for information, education and best practices in an area of residential building construction that has become known as Home Performance and Weatherization. ACI connects the professional contractors and technicians on the front lines with the newest building science information from industry experts. This is done primarily through national and regional conferences and trade shows.

The first Affordable Comfort Conference was held in 1986. People from 30 states gathered in Pittsburgh, Pa. that year to share ideas about making homes energy efficient, comfortable, and affordable, without risk to the residents and building structure. The annual conference continued to grow and ACI was incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 1992.

From the very beginning, two themes have been emphasized: the “House as a System” and building diagnostics. Addressing the whole house is a major paradigm shift for the residential building industry. The concept of home performance has evolved to express the interconnectedness of the building envelope, mechanical systems, indoor air quality, occupant behavior, and the role of building diagnostics in making sure that a house performs as it should.

ACI is widely recognized for convening the best and brightest to share and learn new approaches in home performance. ACI brings together people from many sectors of the building trades and housing industry – contractor, builder, utility, nonprofit, local, state, and national government, research and education. Out of this diverse network comes the opportunity to discover resources and to solve difficult home performance problems.

Conference History
Over 300 people attended the first Affordable Comfort Conference, including utility companies, weatherization and government agencies, and nonprofits. The conference, funded by the Pennsylvania Energy Center program, was hosted by ACTION Housing, Inc. of Pittsburgh. Dave Harrje was the first keynote speaker on the topic, “The House as a System,” and industry leaders including Rana Belshe, Jack Laverty, Tom Wilson, and Keith Aldridge were among the first presenters.

This annual conference was initially held in Pittsburgh and then alternated between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh until the move to Chicago, Ill., in 1996, with the support of the Illinois Dept. of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. Moving the annual conference to various locations around the United States has helped to attract new partners and attendees. ACI’s 2011 National Conference in San Francisco, Calif., attracted our largest audience to date.

As awareness and demand for the “House as a System” approach grew, regional events were added to the schedule. The first regional conference was in San Ramon, Calif., in October 1994 with the support of Pacific Gas & Electric. Since then, more than 30 regional conferences have been held in California, New York, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Oregon, New Jersey, Colorado, and Pennsylvania. A sampling of the organizations that have supported these regional events includes: NYSERDA, National Grid, Energy Trust of Oregon, Xcel Energy, and West Penn Power Sustainable Energy Fund.

Partners
ACI has always been a cooperative endeavor of diverse groups and individuals from the United States and Canada. In 1986, no one imagined that the seed money from ACTION Housing and the Pennsylvania Energy Office for the first conference would blossom into a network of thousands. They represent the full range of groups with an interest in home performance, including federal, state, and local government agencies, utility and private sector companies, nonprofit groups, trade associations, and additional training groups.

Critical to our financial health are our Sustaining Sponsors: Building Performance Institute (BPI), Saturn Resource Management, U.S. Dept. of Energy, the Home Performance w/ENERGY STAR program, Conservation Services Group (CSG), Energy Federation Inc. (EFI), GreenHomes America, Fluke, WellHome, and The Energy Conservatory.

ACI Conferences are Advancing an Industry
One of the signs that an industry is forming around home performance and weatherization is the growth and vibrancy of the ACI Trade Show. The trade show features vendors from a wide range of manufacturers and distributors as well as nonprofits, trade and service organizations, training groups, media and software companies. Our exhibitors find that ACI attendees are incredibly engaged and frequently cite the ACI national conference as their most valuable event of the year. ACI also puts on trade shows at our regionally focused conferences.

ACI Conferences are Building Careers
ACI events connect individuals looking to start or advance their careers in the home performance and weatherization industry with leading trainers and subject-matter experts from across the country. These events offer a wealth of unbiased building science know-how and individuals meet to solve technical problems, exchange new techniques, source new tools and materials and build the momentum of this new paradigm shift in building construction.

ACI is the leading events-planning organization in the country that focuses on home performance and weatherization, and it has built a community that is not afraid to challenge and be challenged. Presenters can be as audacious as they wish with their findings, but they’ve all learned to bring their scientific support along to back up claims because the audience will demand it. With ACI’s 25-year history, many of today’s leading industry experts started their careers in home performance and weatherization by attending an ACI event. They learned something new there, became interested in it, and decided to take it to the next level. Now they are bringing their knowledge and expertise to the classroom.

Whether it’s from a veteran presenter, or a newcomer, ACI is looking for stimulating sessions that cover new ground, or that take perennial topics and advance the conversation to a deeper level. ACI values diversity of perspectives and is interested in sessions that challenge attendees to consider existing problems or assumptions in new ways.

ACI is a continuing education service provider, and many sessions offer credits for advancing attendees’ professional careers through educational opportunities from allied organizations that include:

American Institute of Architects (AIA) - www.aia.org
American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI) - www.ashi.org
Building Performance Institute, Inc. (BPI) - www.bpi.org
National Association of Certified Home Inspectors (NACHI) - www.nachi.org
National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) - www.nari.org
North American Technician Excellence, Inc. (NATE) - www.natex.org
Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) - www.natresnet.org