Mean HVAC is the name of Alex’s HVAC training, consulting, and advocacy company. His mission is to elevate the HVAC industry primarily through education and understanding the link between HVAC design and installation and applied building science. 

Alex started his career at Wrightsoft.  As you may know Wrightsoft is one of the leading developers of Residential HVAC Design software tools. During his time there, he worked his way out of sales and marketing into technical support and finished as their Lead Trainer. You will hear more about his professional progression. 

We also dove deep into Manual J heating and cooling load calculations, and amongst other things, the misunderstanding of Hank Rutkowski’s off the cuff comment that Manual J oversized HVAC equipment by 30%.  Hank was the principal author of Manual J.

Alex Meaney on LinkedIn

Mean HVAC

Mean HVAC Free Stuff: Articles, Vides, and more

Mean HVAC BS Tools on the app store

In my conversation with Josh Salinger, founder and CEO of Birds Mouth Design Build, I learned that the traditional definition of Architect is “master builder” or “chief builder”. Historically, this individual was fully responsible for both the design of a building and the direct supervision and execution of its construction. The ultimate design charrette to determine the goals for a specific project as well as a way to define what a design build firm aims to accomplish.  Josh is not a modern-day architect, but he and his company embody the traditional definition and are designing, supervising and executing the construction of buildings in order to integrate the client’s goals with Birds Mouth goal of building high performance homes using the passive house model.

Josh Salinger on LinkedIn

Birds Mouth Design Build

You Tube Site Visit: Birds Mouth Design Build

Patrick Nielsen is the Global Technical Products Manager for Broan Nutone, a leading manufacturer of residential ventilation solutions. Patrick has 20 years of experience with Broan including roles in product development, where he used his engineering background to launch a wide range of innovative ventilation products to solve a variety of IAQ and customer challenges. More recently his focus has been codes and standards, projecting longer-term product needs/opportunities and training.  He serves as chair on the Home Ventilating Institute (HVI) Board of Directors, chairs their Codes and Standards committee and is active in multiple other committees addressing industry issues, including ASHRAE, RESNET, EEBA and IAQA.

Patrick Nielsen on LinkedIn

BROAN NUTONE

In 1982, a group of building professionals from around the world gathered in Pine Island, Minnesota for the first Energy & Environmental Building Alliance (EEBA) meetup with the goal, to develop criteria for the construction of what we now call high performance and sustainable homes.

 For over 40 years now (EEBA) has been a trusted resource for building science information and education in the construction industry.  To serve the EBBA mission to advance the leading edge of building science knowledge and sustainable business practices in the residential construction community, EEBA delivers educational resources and events including an annual high performance building summit, their free webinar and podcasts, an online construction academy, and training events held around the country. You can learn more at EEBA.org 

I went to my first EEBA home building summit in the mid 1990s as I chased building science education and was introduced to a group of passionate individuals who are now called the legends of EEBA. In this podcast which was recorded at the 2025 EEBA Summit opening session titled State of our industry: Perspective from the EEBA Legends, you will hear first from Mark Laliberte with Construction Instruction then Joe Lstiburek from Building Science Corp, Gord Cook from Building Knowledge Canada and Construction Instruction, Sam Rashkin, former director of the EnergyStar program and Gene Meyers with Thrive Homebuilders. You will also hear a bit from Pat Heulman recently retired from the University of Minnesota.

Enjoy

Energy & Environmental Building Alliance (EEBA)

Clay McCombe is the heat pump Program Manager for the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) who servs 59 jurisdictions in the Denver metro area. Recently DRCOG was awarded a $200 million grant from the EPA aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful air pollutants. Clays focus on heat pumps is based on beneficial electrification and improving the air quality in the Denver Metro area, but he has found himself deep into workforce development and introducing statewide licensing for HVAC contractors in Colorado. Why, because the HVAC industry still is not stepping up to design and install their HVAC product properly. From a licensing perspective it is primarily a health and safety issue, but we will see significant performance improvements if training and licensing take off in Colorado and across the country.

DRCOG Building Decarbonization program

City of Denver Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency (CASR)

ESCO Institute-HVAC Excellence

Energy Skilled Recognition from the DOE

FreakEnomics - Is Professional Licensing a Racket?

The Licensing Racket: How We Decide Who Is Allowed to Work, and Why It Goes Wrong By Rebecca Allensworth

Matt Brill is a builder, innovator, and advocate for sustainable living who carries on a legacy of four generations of craftsmanship starting in the 1930 with his great grandfather. Steeped in that tradition, Matt founded Bauen Build to bring Passive homes to Boulder and the Colorado Front Range.

“Bauen” a German word, means “to build” or to construct out of wood, which is a nod to the passive house principals and attention to details that Matt has instilled in his company.  Bauen’s ultra high-performance homes integrate advanced building science, sustainable methods, repeatable and constructable high-performance details that continue the path of making high performance construction mainstream construction.

Bauen Build

Nailing Passive House Details with Better Jobsite Communication

How to Translate Drawings into Airtight Reality

Free Heat from Boulder Weekly

Ryan Meres Came to RESNET with decades of experience in energy policy, energy codes, and home energy performance after working for groups like the Institute for Market Transformation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, and Southface Energy Institute. 

He continues to focus on policy initiatives as a program specialist for RESENT but also spends much of his time understanding the impact that the RESNET’s National Building Registry data base can have on the building industry in the United States.

The RESNET National Building Registry is a database that houses most of the information gathered by certified HERS Raters that create confirmed HERS ERI scores on homes across the country. Data from over 4 million HERS Rated homes is now in the registry database.

 The Registry serves as a central hub of information for the HERS Rating industry providing data essential for the quality assurance process, but also for policymakers, industry and researchers, as well as helping real estate agents, appraisers, and the public verify the energy-efficiency of a homes through a disclosure of if the home has been rated and what the HERS ERI score is.

Ryan Meres on LinkedIn

RESNET Ratings Mid-Year Report

RESNET® Releases 2024 Annual Report

Public Access to RESNET National Registry

RESNET Newsletter Signup

Interested in more Access to RESNET National Registry

RESNET Registry Data Sharing policy

Sam Rashkin was my first guest on the buildCAST and he graciously agreed to speak with me again. If you don’t know Sam personally, you probably know of Sam as he has presented hundreds, if not thousands, of workshops and seminars to the construction industry that continually is interested I what he has to say.   

After a long career as a licensed architect and serving on the national steering committees for the U.S. Green Building Councils (USGBC) LEED for Homes program as well as a number of other endeavors to promote better construction, Sam becoming most well-known as the National Director, visionary, and leading influencer on the team that put the EnergyStar for New Homes Program on the map.  His fingerprints are also on the EPA’s WaterSense label and Indoor airPLUS program as well as the NAHB’s Green Building Guidelines. At the end of Sam’s career in Government Sam moved from the EPA to the DOE to help broaden the adoption of DOE’s Zero Energy Ready Homes Program.

 Sam is a thought leader in the construction industry as demonstrated in his books Retooling the U.S. Housing Industry and Housing 2.0 a Disruption Survival Guide, which is one reason it is always such a pleasure to speak with him anytime I have the opportunity.

Sam Rashkin on LinkedInSam’s Writing/Blog on Green Builder

Books by Sam Rashkin

EnergyStar

Brad Smith has now been with the City of Fort Collins Colorado for 9 years working with the building department, the municipal utility, and directly with builders and trade partners to ensure that homes built in the city meet the requirements of the Energy Code.

He is continuing a tradition in Fort Collins of goal setting but more importantly measurement and data gathering to ensure that the city gets what it expects. Brad is leading thecodes segment of the cities trek to carbon neutrality by 2030 and has helped to lay out a performance based Zero Carbon Construction Code aimed at achieving zero carbon emissions for all new construction by 2030. This involves determining energy and carbon reduction targets for each three-year release of the cities energy code and then giving builders and architects the freedom to determine the most cost-effective way of achieving the requirement.

Brad Smith on LinkedIn Current City of Fort Collins Energy Code

Fort Collins Zero Carbon Construction Code

Mary's Mountain Cookies

Kim and Juta Cinco are Baseline Design named after Baseline Road, a landmark road in Boulder County that marks the Earth's 40th parallel north. They took inspiration from this line of latitude for how rooted in place and foundational it is. 

The husband-and-wife team have recently designed and completed their first passive house in the Marshall Fire rebuild and are working on their second and third. I wanted to learn about the design process and how it may differ when striving to achieve passive house certification. Our conversation reconfirms that setting performance goals, developing design constraints, having integrated designmeetings with the construction team, and understanding the base building science are all key metrics to better ensure a successful project.

Kim Cinco on LinkedIn

Baseline Design

HammerWell