BUILDTank / buildCAST

I was able to speak with Dave Roberts just before he retired from the National Renewable Energy Lab after a full carrier leading a group of talented engineers and scientists who have been leveraging computer modeling and simulation to address pressing residential building efficiency, electrification, and carbon related issues in our country.   I first met Dave when he worked in software developmen...

Eric Werling spent 30 years in public service. First in the Navy, then as a consultant supporting EPA’s infant EnergyStar program, before helping to create and manage the EPA Indoor airPLUS program, and finally as the DOE Building America program manager. Those 30 years were well spent helping innovation in the residential construction arena grow, flourish and come to market. Eric lived and contri...

Peter Yost is the principle of Building Wright, an applied building science consulting firm based in New Hampshire. Peter is the person you turn to if you want to truly understand how buildings work and is one of those people you keep track of all your carrier. To be honest I was a bit nervous about this conversation, but quickly learned that Peter is not only an expert in the field of applied bui...

Eric Kaiser is the Industry Engagement Manager for TruTech Tools, which means that he is the conduit between the HVAC and home performance testing and commissioning industry keeping the pulse of their needs. As a former HVAC contractor Eric has learned the importance of commissioning and testing and its role in informing technicians about the performance of the products they are installing. Once a...

⁠LG INVERTER HEAT PUMP WATER HEATER

Ben Bogie is a Principal at Building Performance Cooperative, an employe owned building company specializing in building high performance homes based out of Ridgefield Connecticut.  As you will hear, he is a third-generation high performance builder who has incorporated what his father and grandfather were doing into our modern construction practices. Ben remains curious about green high-performan...

Joe Medosch is the Director of training and all things knowledge-based for Measure Quick, an HVAC commissioning tool that helps guide HVAC technicians to ensure the system they install, and work, on perform. In conjunction with a properly sized and designed system, Measure Quick uses measurements of air flow, refrigerant charge, temperatures, and static pressure to leverage data and therefore perf...

Sara Guterman is the CEO Green Builder Media, an avid outdoors person, and a leader of change and innovation in our construction industry.  Many have moved on from the term, “green building”. Sara has embraced it, is conscious of the potential for green washing, and has built a network of builders, consumers, suppliers and trades people that are reframing green building to include the totality of...

12 Minutes of concise information for you on Cold Climate Heat Pumps. Enjoy

Asa Foss is the program manager for the ENERGY STAR Nextgen Certified Homes program, which is the first federal new construction certification program focused on operational decarbonization. The program requires that the base home be labeled under EnergyStar for new homes, and then install a climate specific heat pump for heating and cooling, a hot water heating heat pump, an electric or induction...

Alison Bailes has a PhD in Physics and tried academic life but found his true passion in building science while building his own house.  He has moved on and is now fully renovating his current house kind of in the same way that he moved on from home energy ratings, where I first met him, to concentrating on HVAC design. From the broad to the specific one might say. Applying building science throug...

Emily Mottram often describes herself as a “little Nerdy” and as an architect that expresses itself in a focus on people and planet, through high performance design of residential buildings. Emily helped to define high performance construction, as one of the authors of the “Pretty Good House” book which states that the goal is a well thought-out, carefully crafted home, designed to maximize perfor...

Dr. Robert Tino Sonora 10 Minutes on the Economics affecting the building industry

Dr. Ian Giammanco is the Managing Director for Standards & Data Analytics and a Lead Research Meteorologist at the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety Center. He has been instrumental in the creation of IBHS’s Thunderstorm Ready Home program which was created in the wake of severe weather events. In 2023 alone 20 states were impacted by 19 severe convective storm events, each caus...

The ability to take a deep dive into construction topics is never greater than at IBS. Because of the electrification of our home’s movement, my work in the Marshall Fire rebuild and the huge incentives that are now available to those electrify their homes, I chose to dive into heat pump water heating. Yes, they are more efficient at heating hot water, but several questions still needed to be answ...

Devon Tilly is a visionary who sought me out to partner on a deep dive series on his Art of Construction podcast. He speaks often about platforms and master facilitators, and it took me quite some time to better understand that he is a big thinker whose objective is to bring the construction community together. Platforms can be companies, networking groups, like BS and Beer Metro Denver that I sta...

Navien Hydro

Section 45L Tax Credits for Zero Energy Ready Homes Federal Tax Credits for Builders of Energy Efficient Homes Homeowner Tax Credits

I reached out to Dr. Robert "Tino" Sonora, clinical professor of finance and adjunct professor of economics at the University of Montana and one of my oldest friends, because I had just listened to a “Planet Critical” podcast that posed the question, in countries that print their own currency, can we make the electrification transition faster. The premise of this question uses Modern Mon...

There is no doubt that Enrico Bonilauri is a passionate advocate for performance based Passive House construction. He has recently researched and publishing a white paper report comparing twelve building standards used in the United States which concludes that current building codes and building programs fail to deliver resilient and healthy buildings for their occupants. His conclusions are the r...

I first met Kohta early in my carrier after I got laid off from a builder, started my own company, and then that same builder became my client.  When I worked for them, we built their first environmental research house, and then the Building America program began consulting on their second. BSC was the consultant assigned to the project and I was tasked to assist Kohta in all things diagnostic on...

RMI Home Builders CAN RHEIA duct systems

Martin Holliday on the buildCAST

Paul Raymer comes from a long line of inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs. He’s added writing to the mix, and has published 4 novels, three of which follow his protagonist, Jon Megquire’s, trials with buildings and murder, and three handbooks, including the residential ventilation handbook, that give one the information needed to select and install appropriate ventilation systems for any home...

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