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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 result of modeling 50 homes to determine the minimum compliance requirements in each of the twelve building standards using the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) software. Enrico boils his thoughts down to why Passive House performance-based construction should be widely adopted by stating in his paper that, “… one of the greatest challenges the American construction industry faces is to start setting specific goals to how a building performs. That is, instead of setting prescriptive requirements for individual building components.” We see all the time that builders just want to be told what to do prescriptively, if instead, we concentrated on what we must do to perform would we be in a better place?  I don’t know but we will figure it out together through my conversation with Enrico Bonilauri of Emu Passive. Enrico Bonilauri on Linkedin Emu Passive Report on Building Standards Emu Passive Report on Building Standards YouTube EMU Passive Building Science Ice Box Challenge ANSI/ASHRAE STANDARD 228, STANDARD METHOD OF EVALUATING ZERO NET ENERGY AND ZERO NET CARBON BUILDING PERFORMANCE

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 this house before it opened to the public. As you will hear, serendipity fell into Kohta’s lap, as he started a lifelong mentorship with Joe Lstiburek and Betsy Pettit, the founders of Building Science Corporation.  Over time Kohta has become one of the great Building Scientists that we look up to and now the mentee is mine and many others mentor. I believe that Kohta is wicked smart, but he is also one of the most humble and gracious people I have met, and that is what I appreciate most about him.  Kohta thank you for all you do for the construction industry. Kohta Ueno on LinkedIn Building Science Corporation Kohta Ueno in Fine Homebuilding Magazine

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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. Around the time of the oil embargo in the late 1970s, Paul was swept into the magic of building science when he moved into an old inn on Cape Cod that needed a lot of work and a lot of energy to keep warm.  He has become an expert in ventilation and is currently working with the consulting firm ICF and the EPA’s Indoor airPLUS program. 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

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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. Martin Holladay on LinkedIn 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 Northern STAR Building America Partnership 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 PHIUS or Passive House Institute US

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. I have been seeing Lisa speak at different conferences and was grateful when she accepted an invitation to have a recorded conversation. Especially when I found out that in 2019, she became the Associate Director and a technical lead for PHIUS, which really makes her the perfect person to speak with, about all things PHUIS related. Lisa White on LinkedIn 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 @rosstrethewytoh @te2engineering

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 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Washington State University