Staff Spotlight: Leah Guenter, Next Gen RTU Initiative Manager
To a young Leah Guenter, the buildings and streets outside felt like a puzzle to solve. “I wanted to learn how the space around me was built and designed,” Guenter said.
Having grown up in Woodbury, Minnesota, she attended the University of California, San Diego, where she studied structural engineering. Upon graduation, Guenter worked for general contractors in the San Diego area. “I wanted to get out on a construction site,” Guenter explained. “I knew I wanted to be part of the action.”
Several years later, Guenter relocated to Minnesota to work as an owner’s representative, harnessing her knowledge of construction, architecture, and design to represent building owners’ interests throughout all phases of bringing new construction projects to life.
Although Guenter loved her work, she was searching for a missing piece. “I realized I wanted to take all of the specialized knowledge I gained working in construction and use it in a way where I could give back to my community,” Guenter said. In January 2024, she applied for and accepted a position at CEE.
“I had a lot of experience installing commercial HVAC in my previous work, and I knew they weren’t very efficient,” Guenter said. “When I found this position and saw that heat pump RTUs were the focus, I was excited, because it’s not something that is very prevalent in new construction and we have a real opportunity to change that.”
As Next Gen RTU initiative manager at CEE, Guenter focuses on advancing the adoption of energy efficient commercial HVAC technologies, specifically, the next generation of more efficient RTUs. Next gen RTUs use heat pumps and energy recovery ventilators (ERVs) to heat and cool commercial buildings, reducing energy use by 20 percent compared to standard RTUs.
Guenter works with manufacturers, distributors, contractors, and building owners to communicate the savings potential and customer benefits of these technologies, understand barriers and opportunities, and create effective market strategies. She works with both internal and external partners to conduct field studies and provide contractor training on these emerging technologies.
Currently, Guenter is working with colleagues on two pilot projects to study the performance of RTUs and ERVs: a single-story building being used as a cosmetology school in southern Minnesota, which has two AC/gas furnace RTUs with a standalone ERV, and a single-story medical office building in the Twin Cities that has two dual fuel heat pump RTUs. “These units are both under five tons, which is representative of a large portion of Minnesota's RTU market — 52% of which is under 5.4 tons,” Guenter explained. “We are hoping this data can show how a dual fuel heat pump RTU could serve the energy efficiency and decarbonization goals of many Minnesota customers.”
According to Guenter, building bridges between the energy efficiency world and manufacturers and distributors is one of the most enjoyable parts of the job. “The community is eager to speak to us — you can tell that people are excited about this technology and want to work together to get it out there, and that is very exciting and motivating to me,” Guenter said.