Section 45L Tax Credits for Zero Energy Ready Homes Federal Tax Credits for Builders of Energy Efficient Homes Homeowner Tax Credits

I reached out to Dr. Robert "Tino" Sonora, clinical professor of finance and adjunct professor of economics at the University of Montana and one of my oldest friends, because I had just listened to a “Planet Critical” podcast that posed the question, in countries that print their own currency, can we make the electrification transition faster. The premise of this question uses Modern Monetary Theory, which I cannot claim to understand, but in my simplistic mind I learned that we may want to...

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...

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,...

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...

PAWS | Partnership for Advanced Window Solutions 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Todd Usher is the Founder of Addison Homes a South Carolina home building company specializing in building healthy, high-performance homes that emphasize increased comfort and durability, better indoor air quality, greater energy efficiency, and the use of sustainable materials with lower embodied carbon.  How does he do this, he partners with the Department of Energy’s Zero Energy Ready Home program. Todd is a builder, but also an Energy Rater, building consultant, and professor at Clemson...

Bill Spohn is the President and CEO of TruTech Tools and much more. He is an entrepreneur who is willing to listen, learn, and cooperate with an eye towards bettering the world in small and large ways and in any way he can. He is involved in so many interesting thinks that we jumped straight into questions, followed up with a discussion about what he calls his capstone project, a Net Zero Energy modular home that he and his wife built. This is yet another fascinating conversation that I hope...

A Scope of Loss Report is the insurance industry term for an estimate of the rebuilding cost of a lost house due to a severe event like fire, hurricane, or tornado. It does not reflect the cost of the house that will be rebuilt. It reflects rebuilding the specific house that was lost, exactly as it was, to the current building codes. The goal of which is so that the insurance industry knows what to payout based on the policy that was purchased. BW Builder was created in the aftermath of the...

Steve Baczek is a nationally recognized architect, who has been designing and developing custom residential structures for over 28 years. After architecture school he had the opportunity to work with Joe Lstiburek and Betsy Pettit at Building Science Corporation. But since then, he has really honed his unique perspective, knowledge, and ability to be a bridge between architecture and sound building science. As he continues to design, he also, now more than ever, dedicates a large portion of...

Amy Bach, Executive director of United Policy Holders and Lisa Hughes Marshall Fire Survivor and Marshall Fire Local Liaison for United Policy Holders are my guests on this buildCAST.  We discuss the impact of fire specifically, but natural disaster and the destruction of home, its impacts on people and the insurance nightmare that they face. United Policy Holders has stepped into this space to advocate for survivors of natural disaster events, and specifically help them navigate the...

Dr. Diana Fisler is an experienced building materials scientist turned Entrepreneur who is Interested in the interface between early building technology innovation and corporations that bring these technologies to market. She’s running her own research in this space as the CEO of EcoSnap, a technology she is bringing to market that speeds up and lowers the cost of the installation of mini split heat pump systems.  Dr. Fisler is an entrepreneur in residence at ADL ventures and actively part of...

Alpen High-Performance Products is an American window and door manufacturer that designs and builds some of the most energy efficient window and door products in North America and the world.  Alpen’s core products draw on a 30 plus year history of industry leadership in advanced, high-performance window and glass manufacturing.  They are an innovative company that has partnered with the Department of Energy, the National Renewable Energy Lab, and others to be a leader in bringing new...

If you’re not talking about it, if you’re not Marketing it, and most importantly if you’re not helping the consumer connect with it on an emotional level or a level where they can clearly understand the benefit to them, then you’re simply giving it giving it away. Pamela Brookstein manages the Value for High Performing Homes program at Elevate, a nonprofit organization dedicated to designing and implementing efficiency programs that lower costs, protect the environment, and ensure the...

Karen Benner is a GREEN Realtor and founder of Clayton Avenue Consulting. She brings her 20 years of experience and a large builder perspective and discipline to her new Offsite Dirt show called “Building Better with Karen.   Offsite Dirt is a media and an event company that showcases all the current news, techniques, technology, influencers, and conversations in offsite construction and is hosting “better building with Karen”, on their website, and You Tube channel.   Karen is using her...

Mike Missimer principal and owner of MGI Mechanical has almost 30 years of experience in the HVAC industry, he has used his engineering background and love of learning to question the rules of thumb that are interwoven into the HVAC world. He has learned firsthand that you get what you inspect not what you expect, and therefore has helped develop and promote sound repeatable commissioning practices that have been codified within jurisdictions of Northern Colorado. Mike also understands the...

Gayathri Vijayakumar is a Principal Mechanical Engineer at Steven Winter Associates. For over 17 years, she has specialized in evaluating residential and multifamily buildings with an emphasis on high-performance construction and renewable energy systems. Early in her career, Gayathri provided technical assistance to sustainability projects by performing energy modeling and conducting cost-benefit analyses of energy efficient measures in both new and existing residential construction. She...