IAEE Member Spotlight - Sly Grimm
Tell us a little about yourself, background, and interests. My name is Sly Grimm and I am originally from Southeast Iowa but now live in Des Moines. I’ve been in the HVAC industry for the past decade working at a distributor selling directly to contractors and now work for Mitsubishi Electric as an Area Sales Manager working directly with distributors, contractors, and people in the energy efficiency space. Outside of work I enjoy doing anything outside, hunting, fishing, hiking, relaxing on my patio, spending time with family and friends are always at the top of my list.
Is there a specific area of energy efficiency that you have a passion? (a certain technology, community outreach, education, data calculation, etc.) I love to talk heat pumps! If you’ve seen my laptop at any of the events that I support I have a big sticker on it that says just that! I have a background in ground source and air source heat pumps and talking applications is by far my favorite thing to discuss. The more unique the application the more I want to talk about it!!
What brought you to IAEE? My good friend Kevin DeMaster who also works at Mitsubishi Electric in our utilities space got me involved in IAEE, and after I learned about what the association does and how it helps push energy efficiency in my home state I wanted to support it any way that I could!
What personal benefits do you hope to receive as a member of the Association? I think the best benefits are the contacts that you make in the association and finding people that are like-minded. People that care about energy efficiency are fanatical in the best possible way and having a space where you can meet, discuss, and work together helps advance all of our goals.
How do you think the Association will help shape the energy efficiency industry? I think the biggest way they will help shape the industry is by bringing more focus to the goals of promoting energy efficiency whether it be residential or commercial applications. By having people that are focused on heating and cooling, lighting, electric vehicles, reducing peak demand, all of the things that we discuss as a group, these are all things that individually matter but all of them fit together like pieces of a puzzle. By having people from each area in one group that can collaborate and learn from each other and help pull the rope in the same direction it makes such a more profound influence than any of us could do individually.
Please feel free to share any other interesting thoughts or items you would like to share. The fact that heat pump growth has been slower in Iowa than any of the surrounding states is something that I find very interesting, and while that is starting to change I would love to see that number continue to grow at a faster pace than it has. At the next event stop me and let’s discuss ideas on how we can all work together to help change that!!