3+ Ways to Replace Spray Foam Insulation in Your Basement Here’s a discussion feed from one of our best-selling courses, Zero Net Energy Homes. In the discussion, one of our students asks Marc Rosenbaum for foam-free ways to retrofit her New England basement. Here are the alternatives to spray foam… Continue reading “3+ Ways to Replace Spray Foam Insulation in Your Basement”
John Siegenthaler Reviews Heat Pumps In the article below, John Siegenthaler, Principal of Appropriate Designs, explains how air-to-water heat pumps offer new opportunities for hydronic pros. At the end of the article, John runs the numbers to answer the question: “How does the performance of… Continue reading “John Siegenthaler Reviews Heat Pumps”
Win a $10,000 Zero Net Energy Building Award! Think your house is the best Zero Net Energy building in the Northeast? You could win $10,000! The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA), a membership organization with a mission to advance the adoption of sustainable energy practices in the Built Environment,… Continue reading “Win a $10,000 Zero Net Energy Building Award!”
Air Barriers vs. Vapor Retarders vs. Drainage Planes: Learn Essential Building Science Specifics in 60-Minutes Building science is complex. It takes time and experience to understand and integrate physics, chemistry, climatology, and ecology into building enclosures. Understanding the complex interplay of heat, air, and moisture flows within and across building enclosures— while paying attention to the… Continue reading “Air Barriers vs. Vapor Retarders vs. Drainage Planes: Learn Essential Building Science Specifics in 60-Minutes”
Learn in 60 Minutes: Conventional vs. Passive Floor Planning If you don’t floor plan properly, you will fail. During this free 60-minute lecture, Mike Duclos, Principal and Founder of DEAP Energy Group and expert instructor at HeatSpring, describes how Passive House floor planning differs from conventional floor planning. Mike… Continue reading “Learn in 60 Minutes: Conventional vs. Passive Floor Planning”
Calculate Heat Loss to the Ground with Marc Rosenbaum Marc Rosenbaum, Director of Engineering, South Mountain Company and one of HeatSpring’s expert instructors, taught a free live lecture to more than 200 architects and builders last week. His focus: demonstrate how buildings interact thermally with the ground and teach… Continue reading “Calculate Heat Loss to the Ground with Marc Rosenbaum”
Two Free Tools: ASHRAE Standards 55 and 62.2 Calculators Registered engineering technologist and expert HeatSpring instructor Robert Bean has developed two calculators to help designers meet ASHRAE Standards 55 and 62.2: “Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy” and “Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Low-Rise Residential Buildings.” Considered… Continue reading “Two Free Tools: ASHRAE Standards 55 and 62.2 Calculators”
Master the Outdoor Reset Curve in 60 Minutes Plumbing and hydronics expert, Dave Yates has mastered the outdoor reset curve: boosting the value of his work, maximizing fuel savings, and increasing the comfort of his clients’ home. He wants you to master it, too. In this 60-minute free lecture,… Continue reading “Master the Outdoor Reset Curve in 60 Minutes”
Troubleshooting Condensing Boilers in Hydronic Systems – What is the System Doing? This a guest post from Roy Collver. Roy is a condensing boiler expert. Here’s what John Siegenthaler, author of “Modern Hydronic Heating,” says about Roy’s work: “When I have a detailed question about the inner operation of a modulating / condensing… Continue reading “Troubleshooting Condensing Boilers in Hydronic Systems – What is the System Doing?”
Free Floor Plan: 10 Ways Passive House Design is Different Than Normal Home Design If you want to download the floor plan, please scroll to the bottom of the article. This is a guest post by Mike Duclos. Mike is founder of The DEAP Energy Group, a firm providing a wide variety of deep energy… Continue reading “Free Floor Plan: 10 Ways Passive House Design is Different Than Normal Home Design”
Robert Bean + HeatSpring = Integrated HVAC Engineering Training The way a building functions represents an incredibly complex intersection of numerous fields, including architecture, design, engineering, environmental and health sciences, and construction. As each field evolves, it becomes increasingly necessary, but also difficult, to understand how they are interrelated.… Continue reading “Robert Bean + HeatSpring = Integrated HVAC Engineering Training”
NESEA, Mike Duclos and HeatSpring Launch Passive House Design Training If you’re a professional in the building industry, you’ve probably heard of the growing Passive House movement. You may even be familiar with the basic principles. If you have clients who want to apply the Passive House standard to an… Continue reading “NESEA, Mike Duclos and HeatSpring Launch Passive House Design Training”
5 Keys for Greening Commercial Roofs Dr. Jim Hoff currently serves as vice president of research for the Center for Environmental Innovation in Roofing in Washington, D.C., and president of TEGNOS Research Inc., a consulting organization dedicated to expanding understanding of the building envelope. He’s also… Continue reading “5 Keys for Greening Commercial Roofs”
5+ Trends that will Drive the Growth of the Hydronic Industry in the Next 3 Years: A 30-Minute Conversion with John Siegenthaler There are a variety of forces changing the dynamics of the hydronic heating and renewable thermal industries that were not happening five years ago. While hydronic distribution is still attractive for similar technical reasons that it was five years ago—comfort,… Continue reading “5+ Trends that will Drive the Growth of the Hydronic Industry in the Next 3 Years: A 30-Minute Conversion with John Siegenthaler”
Free Hydronic Design Video From John Siegenthaler This ten minute video is all about fittings. Fittings can be an afterthought, but they are a critical component for designing a high-performing hydronic heating system. In this video, John Siegenthaler outlines the universe of fittings, and even tells you… Continue reading “Free Hydronic Design Video From John Siegenthaler”
Free 26 Minute Lesson on Performing Heat Loss Calculations for Net Zero Energy Homes Calculating heat loss, and designing for minimal heat loss, is absolutely critical to designing and building net zero energy home or to passive house standards. Watch this 26 minute video lesson, from Marc Rosenbaum’s Zero Net Energy Homes course to… Continue reading “Free 26 Minute Lesson on Performing Heat Loss Calculations for Net Zero Energy Homes”
Full Case Study of 8 Net Zero Energy Homes The following post is a case study of 8 Net Zero Energy Homes that were designed by South Mountain Company (SMC). SMC’s Marc Rosenbaum is teaching a class on Net Zero Energy Design that will give you all of the… Continue reading “Full Case Study of 8 Net Zero Energy Homes”
The Future of Comfort. How the World Cup Might Help Your Help Your HVAC Business. How did Qatar win their bid to host the 2022 World Cup? In this video, Wolfgang Kessling explains how his team designed a comfort strategy that helped make it happen. Yes, comfort. Here’s why I wanted to share this video with… Continue reading “The Future of Comfort. How the World Cup Might Help Your Help Your HVAC Business.”
The Best Sales Tool For Small Renewable Energy Companies I’m in the search for the best sales tool to sell solar pv, solar thermal and geothermal. I am building a renewable energy company, and I’m focused on building the most profitable company I can. We’re a small company, we haven’t… Continue reading “The Best Sales Tool For Small Renewable Energy Companies”
The Entrepreneur vs General Contractor. Who Will Win the Clean Energy Race? There’s an interesting split in the residential and light commercial clean energy space lately. As consumer demand is surging and some “old” solar pv players are moving to bigger projects (Nexamp no longer does residential and is installing 4.5 MW… Continue reading “The Entrepreneur vs General Contractor. Who Will Win the Clean Energy Race?”