Today we talk with Rick Helwig, founder of one of the biggest weatherization contracting firms in the Midwest.  His crew of 75 full time employees is an awesome mix of family business with large-scale organization, and of high performance science with Chicago-style practicality. 

The Contractor is King: interview with Rick Helwig of DNR Construction

The Building Performance Podcast is an interview series drawing on the experience and ideas of a wide array of professionals in the high performance building industry. 
The intersection of advances in building technologies, the energy crisis, green building trends, and the environmental crisis has made it hard to pursue business-as-usual. The general climate is forcing those of us in the building industry to take a more integrated, systematic approach to building.
We talk with engineers, policy makers, program managers, contractors, diagnosticians, ESCOs, architects, utilities, and building managers, among others.  Hosted by Corbett Lunsford of the Building Performance Workshop, author of Home Performance Diagnostics and creator of an arsenal of resources for understanding and using home performance testing.

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Science

Today Corbett goes down a new rabbit hole in healthy homes, with the many compounds that contain lead, which we are still being sold in shops and groceries at this very moment. Learn how to identify lead-containing consumer products and parts of your home with Eric Ritter's new DIY lighting fast DIY Lead Test Kit (https://DetectLead.com). For the video version of this interview: https://youtu.be/IRNv0UH2EtY Join our Patreon team and become part of a year-round conference on applied building science: https://Patreon.com/HomeDiagnosisTV

#93 LEAD IS STILL ALL OVER US: Eric Ritter on Lead in Homes, Products, and Cheese

Today we talk with HVAC design legend Russ King (https://kwikmodel.com) about how to trim the fat out of heat load calculations in Manual J (and how you sometimes can't), along with fine points on duct design, grille selections, and a brand new movement in software to help homeowners perform their own load calculations (https://DIYloadcalcs.com). Hosted as always by Corbett Lunsford (https://BuildingPerformanceWorkshop.com). See the first-ever TV series about the Science of Homes at: https://HomeDiagnosis.tv

#92 HVAC Design Softwares with Russ King of KwikModel

Today Corbett drills down into the details of high-resolution, long-lasting testing trackers called 'dataloggers' with Paul Gannett, an engineer at HOBO by Onset. These days we can track the temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide (CO2), light levels, electrical load, and so much more with these instruments that often cost under $200 (which used to be unheard of). Learn more about HOBO dataloggers: https://www.onsetcomp.com/

#91 DATALOGGERS 101: Tracking Performance by the Second with HOBO's Paul Gannett

Today Corbett dives deep into the science of using HVAC to control indoor air quality (IAQ) with Dr. Jeffrey Siegel, professor of civil engineering at the University of Toronto. Jeff is named in over a hundred scientific studies published in this topic, and over the 45 minutes he blows conventional wisdom out of the water again and again.

#90 HVAC NO MERCY MYTHBUSTING with Dr. Jeffrey Siegel

Today we went deep with Matt Risinger (https://www.youtube.com/user/MattRisinger)on the challenges builders face from their industry, their traditions, and their clients. Part of our upcoming Season Two of 'Home Diagnosis' TV, which you can see at: http://HomeDiagnosis.tv

The Contractor is King: interview with Rick Helwig of DNR Construction

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