BUILDTank / buildCAST

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.

Paul’s not an engineer, but he has the mind of one. Taking a correspondence course in consumer electronics launched his entrepreneurial and inventing carrier. He’s started several companies and invented and developed a wide array of products in a number of different industries.

I think writing is Paul’s real passion, however, so I put a link in the show notes to all his books. He says that “Writing is the transfer of information and ideas.  It is like writing music or painting, photography, or any other art.  The right words can create sounds or smells or images or people.  It weaves together the magic of imagination in other human minds.

Paul Raymer on LinkedIn

Paul Raymer books, blog, and more:

ASHRAE Standard 62.2. - Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Low-Rise Residential Buildings

Indoor airPLUS

RESNET ANSI Standard 380

Hempitecture

Martin Holladay is a self-made building scientist who followed a passion that led to a career in investigating how to build comfortable, efficient, and resilient buildings and then writing about it. First in JLC, then in Energy Design Update, and finally for Green Building Advisor. All publications Martin’s either started or helped to bring to prominence. He learned quickly that if he had a question about a building topic that many others did as well. What sets him apart, however, is that he can research, synthesize, and then write about what could be a dry topic, in a compelling way that makes you want more. I totally enjoyed the breath of my conversation with Martin, and I think you will as well.

Green Building Advisor

Martin Holladay Fine Homebuilding MagazineMusings of an Energy Nerd: Toward an Energy-Efficient Home

Pat Heulman says he is a retired professor from the University of Minnesota, but in reality, in retirement, he has stayed on as an adjunct professor.  Lucky for the University students and others in the industry, like me and you, he is still sharing his vast knowledge. He teaches residential energy and building systems, as well as advanced building science courses. He is a cofounder of the Cold Climate Housing Program and has been an active building science researcher and has participated in many DOE Building America funded research projects.

I have met Pat several times over the years, followed his research, and was very excited to have the opportunity to speak with him on the buildCAST.  He has so much to share that we are already planning on a second conversation, so if you have a topic that you think I should cover with Pat please let me know and I will try to bring it up in our future conversation.

Pat Huelman on LinkedIn

University of Minnesota Cold Climate Housing Program Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering

Building America 

DOE Solar Decathlon

Foundation insulation effectiveness

Project over coat

Ken Levenson is the Executive Director of the Passive House Network. He graduated from Pratt Institute in Architecture and practiced architecture for 20 years in New York City where he discovered Passive House and became a Certified Passive House Designer. He was a founding board member of New York Passive House, the National Passive House Alliance, and the Passive House Network, all nonprofits dedicated to promoting Passive House principles through education. After briefly stepping away from the Passive House Network Ken returned to PHN as its first Executive Director, focused on Passive House education and building capacity to move passive house buildings forward in the US. 

As you will hear, he was also a co-founder of 475 High Performance Building Supply, a mission driven building material supply house that provides passive house building knowledge and essential building materials and components to the community. 

I think passion and mission driven are the two phrases that best describe Ken’s career, so much so, that he consciously got arrested to put action behind his values. You’ll hear more about that as well, so since I know you are going to enjoy it, let’s get started.

Ken Levenson on LinkedIn

Passive House Network

475 High Performance Building Supply

Passive House Institute

Lisa White joined PHIUS after earning a degree in Environmental Sustainability with a minor in Architecture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a Master’s in Energy Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

With PHIUS Lisa has worked as a PHIUS trainer, as the Certification Manager, and has been a longtime member of PHIUS’ technical committee that developed the PHIUS+ 2015 Climate-Specific Passive Building standard, followed by the 2018 and 2021 updates.  In addition to standards development and research, Lisa has worked directly with the Fraunhofer Institute of Building Physics to develop and implement new key features into the WUFI Passive energy modeling software that PHIUS uses for passive building certification.

PHIUS or Passive House Institute US

PHN 0r Passive House Network

PHI of Passive House Institute

Ross Trethewey thinks Zero to 360 and is the founder of TE2 Engineering. TE2 is a full-service engineering design and consultation firm that specializes in high performance HVAC design, renewable energy design and MEP design. Thanks to Travis Brungart and Joe Cook at Catalyst Construction, I met Ross at the BS and Beer Building Science symposium held in September in Denver. Ross can explain mechanical engineering in terms that anyone can understand, and we had a wonderful conversation about HVAC design, low load homes, and his ongoing contributions as the third generation of Trethewey’s on PPS’s This Old House.

Ross Trethewey on LinkedIn

TE2 Engineering

Ross Trethewey on This Old House

Ross Trethewey on Instagram

The Building America Solution Center grew out of the Department of Energy’s Building America Program. A Program that has been a source of innovations in residential building energy efficiency and performance for over 25 years. The Building America Program leverages cutting-edge building science research to develop the solutions and best practices needed to advance energy efficiency in the homes we are building today.

The Solution Center is the platform the Department of Energy is using to disseminate and provide access to the expert information on hundreds of high-performance construction topics, including applied building science, air sealing and insulation, HVAC, windows, indoor air quality, and much more. Recently the Solution Center added the Building Science Advisor which is a no-cost, web-based tool that provides expert guidance on the moisture durability and energy efficiency of new and retrofit wall assembly designs. The Building Science Advisor helps teach building science principles and can inform residential building designers, builders, engineers, and students of building science, on how to specify energy-efficient, moisture-durable wall systems, with a simple, intuitive user-interface. The tool leverages expert knowledge and a database of thousands of pre-simulated hygrothermal models to provide rapid feedback and expert guidance on wall assembly design, tailored to your specific climate zone. If you use this simple modeling tool you can fail fast and move forward quickly while limiting risk exposure and increasing cost effective design.

It was a pleasure speaking with the national lab team of experts that help bring this tool forward for our collective use and who guided me through their carrier pathway as well as us through the Building Solution Center and specifically the Building Science Advisor tool.

Building America Solution Center

Building Science Advisor

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Washington State University