This episode of the BS* + Beer show features engineers Sonia Barrantes, Kristof Irwin, and Brian Ault discussing the topic of indoor combustion—particularly wood-burning—in super-tight homes. Their bottom line? Don’t do it. However, if unavoidable, you’ll want to see their presentation, as it explains the finer points of doing it right.

Builder Andy Engel, architect Alexandra Baczek, and Tstud representative Mark Wille join the Brew Crew to discuss the industry’s progression from timber framing to balloon framing to platform framing to advanced framing, including related materials.

Steve Baczek, Peter Yost, and Jake Bruton, the hosts of the Unbuild It podcast, take over the BS + Beer Show to impart their building science wisdom with guaranteed shenanigans.

This week we hosted a Book Club discussion of Jacob Racusin’s Essential Building Science: Understanding Energy and Moisture in High Performance House Design. The book is aimed at anyone looking to gain a basic understanding of green building principles; the level of information is meant to be comprehensive but approachable.

The Kansas City chapter of BS* + Beer is co-hosting the 2nd Annual Wall Assembly Design Competition for students. Guests Connor Malloy, Joe Cook—both founders of the competition—and Christine Williamson, who is one of the judges, explain how the contest came to be, what it entails, and how the submitted projects will be judged.

How do aesthetics affect building performance? How do performance goals influence design decisions? Three architects—James Hartford, Meri Tepper, and Robert “Bob” Swinburne—join the Brew Crew to discuss their approach to creating good-looking high-performance homes.

This week, the Brew Crew is joined by Kohta Ueno, Ben Bogie, and Doug Horgan. They discuss building sensors and data logging. The conversation centers around two key questions: What should we be measuring? And how should it be measured?

Our last lighting episode was so popular that we wanted to continue the conversation with practical applications in mind. This week features returning guests David Warfel and Jeff Calkins, as well as Ben Parra. We hear about affordable strategies for improving what we are doing with lighting. Suffice to say, it’s packed with solid nuggets of information. Types of lighting discussed include disc lights, step lights, adjustable flex downlights, linear lights, and LED strip tape.

Join us this week for a discussion of deep-energy retrofits with Jesper Kruse and Anna Heath from Maine Passive House (mainepassivehouse.com). They share two projects—one is the Oxbow Brewery, a 200-year-old barn that they turned into a high-performance structure while preserving historic details; the other is Jesper’s own home.

This week we are joined by an all-star Fine Homebuilding magazine guest list. Mason Lord, founder of the Connecticut chapter of BS*+ Beer, came up with the idea to celebrate FHB’s 40th Anniversary with a look back at the industry, the magazine, and the people who have helmed it.