Krishnan Gowri
Intertek - Building Science Solutions
3617 188th Street, SE
Bothell, WA 98012
United States
253-304-4579
Region:
Honorarium:
krishnan.gowri@intertek.com
Gowri

Krishnan Gowri has more than thirty years of experience in the construction industry as a building science and building performance expert. Krishnan received his undergraduate degree in Civil and Structural engineering from Annamalai University in India and obtained his Masters and Doctoral degrees in Building Engineering from Center for Building Studies at Concordia University, Montreal, Que. He is a student of Dr. Paul Fazio, founding Director of Center for Building Studies. As a graduate student, Krishnan conducted research in integrated building design and advanced computer applications for the construction industry. He was an Assistant Professor at Concordia University and taught building science, matrix analysis of structures and integrated building design courses.
Since 1995, Krishnan was part of the Building Energy Codes Program as Senior Research Scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, WA. During his almost 20 year tenure at PNNL Krishnan led the energy codes software development team and was a key contributor and developer of COMcheck and REScheck tools, widely used to demonstrate compliance to ASHRAE 90.1 and IECC energy codes. He was instrumental in simplifying the energy code compliance calculation process, and has helped industry professionals navigate regulatory frameworks with ease. Krishnan also managed a team of energy efficiency experts conducting energy performance evaluations of GSA owned buildings and helped develop a new program known as Targeted E4 (Energy Efficiency Expert Evaluations). Krishnan was Principal Engineer of Autodesk Building Performance Analysis team and contributed to the integration of cloud-based energy analysis in Revit. This included automatic EnergyPlus model creation from Revit models. Currently Krishnan leads the Building Performance team at Intertek providing thermal, moisture and energy assessments of existing buildings and reviewing new building designs to improve performance.
Krishnan has been a member of ASHRAE since 1995 and has served on various technical and society committees. Krishnan is a recipient of ASHRAE Distinguished Service Award and recognized as an ASHRAE Fellow in 2017. He is currently the Chair of 2027 Applications Handbook Subcommittee and serves as a member of the Board of Governors of ASHRAE Puget Sound Chapter.
Beyond his academic, research and industry pursuits, Krishnan spends his leisure volunteering for non-profit educational organizations and anything tennis – as a player, stringer, certified official and coach.

Topic
AI in HVAC Industry: Past, Present and Future (Basic)

Early AI applications in the HVAC industry started with knowledge-based systems or expert systems applications for HVAC system selection, design and fault-diagnosis based on heuristics. At the same time, data analytics were explored for time-series data analysis for predicting energy use and using BAS data for fault detection and diagnosis. Recent advancements in conversational AI and machine learning techniques have taken the world by storm where every aspect of our work and daily lives will be impacted by these next generation AI technologies. During the early 1990's, knowledge-based systems and AI application promises fell short of expectations in the HVAC industry. However, with cloud-based computing, internet information resources, and rapid advancements in natural language processing and conversational AI, the HVAC industry can now solve many challenging problems with analysis, design and operation. This presentation will review the history, terminology, concepts, development tools and application of recent advancements in AI for ASHRAE members; and provide an overview of AI Chatbot and machine learning technologies for HVAC industry applications.

Efficiency Assessment for Real Estate Transactions and ESG Reporting (Basic)
This presentation will cover the challenges in energy benchmarking and efficiency assessments during the due diligence phase of real estate transactions. New simplified field audit forms have been developed and integrated with property condition assessment field visits to collect the additional data required for identifying energy efficiency measures. Attendees will learn how to use energy modeling and simplified calculation techniques to identify and prioritize efficiency opportunities.
BIM to BEM - Agile Energy Modeling for High Performance Building Design (Intermediate)
Agile energy modeling provides a framework for robust energy modeling practices based on iterative development starting with BIM models, where the energy model evolves through collaboration between architect, MEP designers and a self-organizing cross-functional team of energy modelers. The collaborative and communicative nature of agile energy modeling needs a scalable infrastructure that can support building model management, analysis as well as delivery of modeling outcomes with software tools and infrastructure solutions. This presentation will introduce the concepts, best practices and evolving workflows that help automate the energy model creation from BIM for early design analysis to detailed design.
Role of Thermal and Moisture Performance Analysis in Building Enclosure Commissioning (Basic, Intermediate))
Building performance analysis during early design reviews can provide highly valuable input to design teams to assure quality and compliance to code requirements of high-performance building enclosures. This presentation will highlight the use of THERM, WUFI, dew point analysis, climate analysis and psychrometry principles to identify potential thermal bridging, interstitial and concealed condensation potential, compliance to mandatory requirements of energy codes. Examples from recent case studies will be discussed to demonstrate how value engineering decisions on envelop material selection and construction sequencing impacts the envelope performance. Lessons learned in providing design review comments and sample envelope commissioning plans and specifications will be discussed to help ensure the BECx process is formalized with these tasks as part of the enhanced envelope commissioning requirements.
Building Enclosure Commissioning Requirements in Energy Codes (Basic)
Many state energy codes and recent updates to ASHRAE 90.1 include detailed design, construction and documentation requirements for building enclosure commissioning. These include field verification and installation of insulation, fenestration and air sealing of the building envelope to ensure improved thermal performance. This presentation will review the new energy code requirements and assessment techniques to identify and mitigate thermal bridging, moisture and air barrier performance issues, and strategies for energy code compliance.