Reinhold Kittler, P.E.
Reinhold was born and raised in Germany. After
attending night school, he received his engineering degree in 1961 while
working as a machine fitter in Stuttgart. This same year he married Heike.
It was during this period that he became involved with refrigeration systems.
Shortly after, he moved to Switzerland and worked with manufacturers of refrigeration
and air-conditioning systems. He also worked with a consulting engineer.
It was in Lausanne that he learned to speak French. In 1966, they moved
to Montreal, Canada where he learned English while working with an industrial
refrigeration contractor. He later worked with a commercial refrigeration
component manufacturer.
Reinhold received his professional engineering license in the Province
of Quebec in 1973 and worked as a consultant along with teaching HVAC courses
part-time for a local college as well as giving night classes as an RSES
instructor. In 1976, he founded Dectron, a leading manufacturer of mechanical
dehumidifiers specializing in indoor swimming pools systems.
He and his wife have lived in Virginia Beach since 1998 where Dectron
used to have a local sales office, which has since been moved to Atlanta,
Georgia. They have two sons, Markus and Ralph.
Reinhold has been very active in ASHRAE since joining in 1974 including
becoming an ASHRAE Fellow in 2001. He co-authored the ASHRAE “Humidity Control
Design Guide” and in 2003 completed the final draft of the “Mechanical Dehumidifiers
and Heat Pipes” chapter to be published in the 2004 HVAC Systems and Equipment
handbook. He is currently members of ASHRAE TC 9.8 and 10.2 and chairman
of TC 7.5. Locally, he is the refrigeration sub-committee chair for the
Hampton Roads Chapter. He is also the ARI product section chair for Indoor
Pool Dehumidifiers and in 1999, completed ARI Standard 910 - Performance
Standard for Indoor Pool Dehumidifiers.